Darkly Destined
by Hen To Pan
Summary: Just as there is a Dark Ocean opposing the Digiworld, there are dark crests to oppose those held by the DigiDestined. This is their story. Set after season two.
1. Ominous Beginnings

A/Ns: "Darkly Destined" is my take on what could happen if there were opposite crests... "dark" crests, if you would.

For the sake of the story, I am mostly ignoring the "25 years later" part of the last episode of season two. The time this fanfiction takes place in is roughly three years after the end of season two; I will also eventually be incorporating Digimon Tamers into this. (Don't ask how; it's complicated and I'm only going to explain it once – when it needs to be explained in the story.)

If you're curious:

Tai, Matt, Sora, Mimi, Izzy – 18

Joe – 19

Davis, Ken, T.K., Kari – 15

Yolei – 16

Cody – 13

I will be using the dub names, because I am more comfortable with them, having only seen the dub.

I am trying to avoid using too many original Digimon; at present, I believe I will be using two over the course of the story, and that's one more than I would have preferred, but oh well. On the other hand, I will have several original human characters.

This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a romance. There may be a few couples, but for the most part, they will only be proven canon ones. (Again ignoring "25 years later," because I do not support any of those couples... or lack thereof, as the case may be.) In any case, the story will not at any point focus solely on romance.

Warnings (for the entire story): Spoilers, violence, some foul language. If there are any future warnings that need to be added, I will note them in future A/Ns.

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or anything related to it.

OoOoOoO

Chapter 1:

Ominous Beginnings

OoOoOoO

"I want to give Oikawa a happier ending," Cody said softly.

The others looked up from the scripts they were reading, expressions showing a varying range of surprise.

"In the show?" Davis asked unnecessarily, waving his copy of the script for the animated series currently being produced. (The most recent episodes of the show Tai had laughingly dubbed "Digimon Adventures" had depicted the original DigiDestined finding their crests; there was a ways to go before they even started scripting the part of the story that came four years later.)

Cody nodded solemnly. He had never quite recovered from the sad and lonely death of Oikawa. In the end, the man had died when MaloMyotismon had; they had been too closely linked for too long for it to be any other way.

"You know, I've been thinking about that," Mimi leaned back in her chair, looking thoughtful. "The end of the show, I mean. Just having it be the defeat of MaloMyotismon and the death of Oikawa... and then finding Gatomon's tail ring, of course... don't you think the fans will be disappointed? Cody's right, we should make it happier!"

"Yeah," Yolei agreed. "It seems... too sparse, somehow. And there are too many loose ends."

"Maybe we should show what 'our' lives are like years afterwards? Maybe twenty-five years?" Izzy mused. "That would wrap up the story nicely, don't you think?"

"But we only know what our lives are like now!" Tai protested.

"So we'll make it up," Kari suggested, smiling. "After all, most people aren't going to know it's based on real people." Sora laughed.

"Sounds like fun!"

"What sounds like fun?" A dry voice asked from the doorway. "Are you kids rewriting my show without telling me?"

"Of course not, Mr Hideki," T.K. replied with an innocent smile. "We're changing what hasn't been written yet, so it can hardly be called '_re_writing."

Rinsuke Hideki, the producer of the animated series, raised his eyebrows. He was a man in his prime at thirty-six years of age, with tousled black hair and gray eyes. He had produced several hit TV shows and movies, and his wife was a famous actress. Rich and powerful, the DigiDestined had been startled at his offer to make a TV show out of their adventures when he inadvertently had a run-in with Ken and Wormmon, and found out about the Digimon.

Behind him was Erisa Arawa, the main artist for the show. A somewhat introverted woman in her early thirties, she had chestnut hair and wide, black eyes. She clutched a sketchpad closely, looking interested in the possibility of something new to draw.

"We wanted a happier ending, and one that wraps up the show better," Joe explained.

"Well, let's work it out and then we'll run it by the writers," Rinsuke sighed dramatically. "Though why you kids insist on coming up with the _end _of the show while we're still not that far in from the beginning is beyond me."

OoOoOoO

After the meeting, the DigiDestined congregated in a secluded area of the park, where their Digimon met them.

"How's our TV show going?" Veemon asked eagerly. All the Digimon had been very enthusiastic about being on TV, but aside from being used as models for the artists and animators, they had not been very much involved; not many people knew about them.

"We made the ending happier," Ken told him as he lifted Wormmon into his arms. "And we added on a 'twenty-five years later' part to wrap up the end of the show."

"The show won't end for a while, though," Gabumon pointed out with a frown.

"It's necessary to think about it now," Matt replied.

"Tai, how can you put something about twenty-five years from now in the show? It hasn't happened yet." Agumon blinked, baffled.

"We made it up," Tai shrugged. He was a little displeased with how the ending had turned out; Matt had won the coin toss for who got to be married to Sora, and Kari had insisted that his adult persona have shorter hair so as to look more business-like. In retaliation, he had tried to have Kari and T.K.'s adult personae be married (much to their embarrassment), but Davis had been strongly against that, and neither Kari nor T.K. had been too eager to have something so presumptuous in the show. (Yolei, on the other hand, had been able to convince Ken to have _their _future personae married. "All in good fun," she had grinned, and Ken, red-faced and bewildered, had agreed.)

"We get to make up stuff about ourselves?" Gomamon grinned. "Can we – ཛྭ

"No," Joe cut him off. "We can _not._"

"But you didn't let me finish!"

"You didn't need to; I know what your ideas are like."

"Whoops, got to go," Mimi interrupted, looking at her watch. "I've got a dinner date. See you all later! Palmon, meet me back at home, okay?"

"Okay, Mimi," Palmon agreed. Mimi waved jauntily to the group, and hurried off.

"It's nice that she's living in Japan again," Sora commented. "It just... didn't feel right, when we were all split up."

That didn't warrant a response; the others all knew what she meant. They were, after all, bound together by destiny.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Gray earth, gray skies, gray trees, and a dark ocean. A place of darkness, it was the opposite of everything in the Digital World; the flipside of the same coin. One young man knew it by what he had seen of it; thus, he called it the "Dark Ocean," and that is how the humans knew it.

Those who lived there called it Corrupted Data. Those who lived in the Digital World did not call it anything; only they who had associated with the DigiDestined knew of its existence, and they condemned it.

The Digimon who lived in Corrupted Data struggled constantly to be free of it, for in many ways, it was a prison; a place of exile. Once they escaped, they fought to remain apart, for twice trapped, they could not escape again.

Many of the DigiDestined's enemies had originally come from there: Devimon, Myotismon and many of his henchmen, the Dark Masters and their servants, Diaboromon, and Daemon. They all escaped – and when each was completely destroyed or banished, it returned.

Corrupted Data would never allow them to escape again; they could trouble the DigiDestined no longer.

But there was a loophole to this rule... and one Digimon who knew it.

OoOoOoO

"Ayah, I do not often get guests. Do sit down. Would you like some tea?" Kolmon smiled in a sickeningly pleasant fashion at the group of Digimon who had barged into his mansion's sitting room.

And such a quaint little room it was, with its wonderful plush furniture! Well, it was as quaint as anything could be in a world that would allow nothing but gray, anyway. Kolmon himself could blend in easily if he wanted to; a tall, man-shaped Digimon with pupil less white eyes, a skeletal frame, and batlike, membranous wings, his coloring was also all grays. He wore a ragged suit that hung off his body in pieces; only his trousers were in any sort of decent shape, and they were torn mid-calf.

He brushed at his suit now, making a show of fussing and pretending that he wanted to look presentable. The smugness radiating off him belied this illusion; his guests weren't fooled in the slightest. All present knew why this particular group had sought him out.

"No idle chatter," Myotismon, who acted as the speaker for the group, growled at him. "We are here about a serious matter."

Kolmon smiled lazily at him. "Really? How interesting. Still, I must insist that you at least take a seat; looking up at you all does strain my neck so. Well? Sit, sit." He gestured them into the seats arrayed around his own chair. Those who could fit in the chairs did so; the rest settled as best as they were able.

"This is quite an honor," Kolmon said with a cheeriness that did not reach his eyes. "I do believe I have in my presence all – every single one – of the Digimon who were able to escape our little realm... only to be returned again. My, my, what a gathering. I see not all of you have been able to regain your previous forms, however." He smiled toothily at Myotismon. "Such a shame."

There was a tense silence, where Kolmon continued to smile in an impudent manner at his guests, and his guests became more frustrated with their host's taunts.

Eventually Kolmon crossed his legs and clasped his hands about his knee, still smiling. "So, gentlemen – and lady," he inclined his head briefly to LadyDevimon, who snorted, "how may I be of service?"

"We had heard," Myotismon began with a cool, dignified demeanor, "that you were aware of a... loophole, of sorts, in the law that binds us here now for eternity."

"My, that's cutting straight to the point, is it not?" Kolmon raised his eyebrows. "Perhaps I do, perhaps I do not. Should, however, I have knowledge of a 'loophole,' as you put it, why would I share this information with you?"

"We had also heard," Myotismon continued, ignoring the interruption, "that you are somewhat... interested in the affairs of a certain band of humans. Or more specifically, one of their mentors."

Kolmon narrowed his eyes. Myotismon very carefully didn't smirk.

"Yes, yes, we all know I detest Genai for sealing me here," their host said crossly. "Are you suggesting that you have the means to destroy him?"

Myotismon held out his closed fist, turned it upside down, and opened his hand. Small, spiked objects appeared, floating gently inches from Myotismon's skin, rotating slowly.

"Yes," Myotismon said softly as Kolmon stared with interest at the Dark Spores he held, "we are."

Kolmon smiled widely. "In that case, my dear Myotismon, I do believe I may have some knowledge of your 'loophole.'"

OoOoOoO

"Do hurry up," Kolmon encouraged his guests cheerfully. "I know stairs are a bit difficult to manage for some of you, but you've all gone and gotten me interested and I really _must _see events progress."

The procession descended the large stone staircase to Kolmon's basement. When they reached the bottom and entered into a dimly lit room, they stopped and surveyed their surroundings. Unlike the rest of Kolmon's modern mansion, this room was cold, damp, and styled archaically. Against the back wall of the room were eight stone pillars, with rectangular holes carved into them. What light there was reflected off of something within the holes.

Kolmon walked up to the first pillar, and pulled something out. With his hands behind his back, he turned and smiled at the other Digimon.

"The secret to escape from this place once it has claimed you for eternity," Kolmon said, displaying what he held in his hand, "is... to be attached to a human as their partner."

His guests stared at the black digivice and crest in his hand. Being of the original model, the dark color looked strange on the digivice; the crest was etched with the same emblem as the crest of Courage, but being black, it obviously stood for something very different.

"Where did you get them?" Piedmon demanded, walking forward and taking the crest to examine it. Kolmon shrugged slightly.

"They were here when I moved in," he explained. "Corrupted Data obviously always intended to have its own human representatives... to be able to traverse the worlds again, all you need do is be affiliated with those humans. Well, should you be chosen as a partner to one of them, you will be reduced to Rookie or Champion form, but I'm sure that's no barrier if you truly want to leave this realm. And with the help of those same human children, the rest of you should be able to leave here, as well."

"Who are the humans, then?" Daemon near snarled.

"That," Kolmon smiled, "is where this gets interesting. You see, they have not yet been chosen. There apparently have been no humans who match the dark crests well enough to be chosen; however, if you have enough of those Spores of yours to spare..." Kolmon eyed Myotismon thoughtfully.

Myotismon smiled. "We might make humans who match the crests. But how to make ourselves the Digimon who will be their partners?"

"And which of us should be the partners?" DemiDevimon asked, flitting about anxiously. "There's a bit more than eight of us, you know."

"You cannot control either of those factors," Kolmon told them cheerfully. "You will just have to trust to luck."

The group of evil Digimon collectively glared at him.

"In that case," Machinedramon rumbled, "why should we go through with this at all? Good or evil, I do not like the thought of more humans running around the Digital Planes, let alone being... _stuck _with them."

"Ah," Kolmon crooned, "you needn't worry about that. You see, I think you'll find _these _humans to be... malleable, or at least more to your tastes. That much is obvious by what these crests represent."

Diaboromon regarded him with narrowed eyes. "How much of a risk will this be for us?"

"Well," Kolmon reasoned with a shrug, "the partners will have to be Digimon from Corrupted Data, and there aren't exactly that many here, are there? It's not that much of a risk. Now, why don't you release those Spores – they'll find their way to the human's world."

Myotismon frowned at him a moment longer. "If there are fewer than five of us chosen as partners for these humans, our deal's off."

"Fine," Kolmon agreed coolly.

Satisfied, Myotismon materialized eight Dark Spores. "Find human children who could match these crests," he murmured to them, "and preferably ones who would be..." He smirked at Kolmon. "...Malleable."

The Dark Spores zoomed off, and vanished.

The digivices of the Darkly Destined glimmered.

OoOoOoO

_Somewhere else in Corrupted Data..._

Two Digimon watched the small spores race across the sky, vanishing as they moved into another realm.

"That does not bode well," Wizardmon murmured.

His companion, a small dog-like humanoid called Strabimon, shook his head. "It doesn't matter if it's a good omen or a bad one," the Rookie informed his friend. "We're not involved."

"No," Wizardmon agreed, "but we may yet be..."

OoOoOoO

Golden eyes followed the paths of the Dark Spores, watching the sky even after the Spores had vanished. A purple-striped tail flicked, the golden ring hanging off the end rotating slowly.

Destiny was falling; he could feel it. He supposed that something had happened involving Corrupted Data's bid for power – the black digivices and crests that the four Guardians of the DigiWorld had declared would never find their owners.

Dispassionately, he stared upwards, never uttering a sound.

Eventually, the Digimon turned his eyes from the sky, and kept walking.

OoOoOoO

A/Ns: Kolmon is an original Digimon (please don't take him without permission); Strabimon is _not. _I'm aware that very few, if any, of you would have heard of him, and that's true of several of the Digimon that will show up in the series. If you want a good picture of what they look like, just go to Google Image Search, and plug in the name of the Digimon in question. I'm sure it'll pop up.

When Kolmon says "I believe I have in my presence all – every single one – of the Digimon who were able to escape our little realm... only to be returned again," that does not mean that he is necessarily _right _in that belief. Wizardmon, for one, has also left and been returned again. (My theory is that when he fell from the sky into the Digital World with no memory of where he came from, his original place of being was the Dark Ocean, but more on that later in the series.)

I get all my information on Digimon from the "Digimon Palace Analyzer," at http /ww w.boesvel d.biz/digimon/Digimon20Analyzer/index. html (Take out the spaces.) It's very in-depth, and very well put together. (It's also NOT MINE.) You should all give it a look!


	2. Introducing the Darkly Destined

A/Ns: This chapter takes place roughly one year after the first chapter; roughly four years after the end of season two.

Disclaimers and warnings hold true from chapter one.

OoOoOoO

Chapter 2:

Introducing the Darkly Destined

OoOoOoO

"Lord Azulongmon!" An angelic champion-level Digimon, D'Archmon, flew to her master in an apparent state of panic.

The Sovereign Digimon glanced up. He had been conversing with Gennai, and was not used to being interrupted, but he was also not used to seeing his servants so distressed.

"Please excuse me," he murmured to Gennai, who nodded his assent. "What is it, D'Archmon?"

"The Dark Digivices," she said breathlessly, "they've located human owners! They've just gone into the human world!"

Instantly, Gennai was on his feet, and Azulongmon was alarmed. "How could that be possible? They were sealed within Corrupted Data!"

"I don't know," D'Archmon admitted. "But I sensed them go, just now. I came to you right away."

"As you ought," Gennai told her, his voice grim. "If that is the case, the children they chose will be summoned to Corrupted Data very soon. I will go alert the DigiDestined; they should be able to help with this."

"No," Azulongmon countered. "Not yet. D'Archmon," he addressed his servant, "as one of the few Digimon able to pass into that dark dimension, I ask that you do all in your power to stop the corrupted children before they can bring forth any of the evil Digimon trapped within Corrupted Data. Bring them before me, but do them no harm; they did not choose this fate for themselves."

"And their Digimon partners, sir?" D'Archmon asked.

"Capture them if you can, but destroy them if you cannot."

D'Archmon bowed. "It will be as you wish, my lord." With that, she turned and flew off.

"Azulongmon," Gennai began with a troubled look, "the DigiDestined should be warned."

"Warned, yes." Azulongmon fixed a stern eye on Gennai. "Involved, no. Not yet. I do not want them hurt more than they have to be, and they should spend as little time as possible in that accursed realm, the holders of Light and Kindness especially."

"Ken and Kari," Gennai sighed. "Very well, I shall warn them of the danger and potential need for their assistance – but I will tell them to stay out of it unless D'Archmon fails."

"Thank you."

OoOoOoO

Itaro Kouki shifted impatiently, rubbing his arms. Where was his mother? She should have been here to pick him up from school fifteen minutes ago. He wandered the building, scowling. Why was she late? Why was she _always _late? They lived ten minutes' drive from the school!

Itaro supposed he could walk home, but he hated walking home. It made him uncomfortable to do so, and besides, it'd been so cold recently.

He ran a hand through his messy black hair, dark eyes darting around the hallway before focusing on watching the parking lot from the windows again. He could be waiting outside, but it was cold enough indoors; besides, he didn't want to. There were other people inside (including a group of people in the computer lab, a few of whom were in his class), and no one at all outside. It was better to be inside.

There was a soft _whoosh _sound from within the computer lab behind him. Itaro rubbed the back of his neck, which felt slightly sore all of a sudden. That happened sometimes; shortly after his fifteenth birthday about a year ago, he'd reacted badly to a bee sting on the back of his neck, and had been in the hospital for nearly a week. Oddly, he hadn't known he was allergic to bees before that, but he'd been avoiding them since. Sometimes, his neck still felt sore, but he had learned to mostly ignore it.

The sound of peoples' voices had stopped. Itaro looked nervously over his shoulder at the closed computer lab door. Had everyone left while he had been lost in thought? How bizarre. He hadn't heard them leave...

Curious, he peeked carefully through the window in the door.

The room was empty! They _had _left. But how? Itaro knew he hadn't heard anything.

Weirded out but unwilling to investigate, Itaro shook his head and backed away from the door, turning back towards the window to watch for his mother.

A soft slushing sound behind him. He shivered, and glanced over his shoulder again. For a moment, he thought he saw waves, but then it blurred and was gone.

He was trembling nonstop now, but he could no longer tell if it was from fear and anxiety, or from excitement and a lingering sense of expectation.

His vision blurred. Everything looked gray. Something black and glowing rose to hover in front of him. Subconsciously, instinctively, he reached for it. He flinched as a searing pain raced through his nerves, stemming from the back of his neck. Nevertheless, his hand inched forwards, toward the glowing thing, as if it had a will of its own.

His fingers brushed against the floating object, and then his world went dark.

OoOoOoO

Zuma Masuko leaned his elbows on the table, steepled his fingers, and raised an eyebrow. His expression was icy and unamused – his "business face," his manager would call it, laughing nervously. Zuma didn't really like his manager, nor did he like the two people he was sitting across from now. In fact, he didn't like anyone.

Zuma had hit puberty early for his sex and so, at thirteen, was tall and mature-looking, but with a clear, childish complexion and slim frame. He had wavy, shoulder-length chestnut-colored hair, and frosty blue eyes. Eurasian and beautiful, Zuma had been a child model since he was eight.

Being rich and famous, Zuma felt he was entitled to a few more of the commodities of life than most children his age.

Control over his parents, for instance. Well – his mother and her boyfriend of the month, actually. And when they rebelled against that control, it was an inconvenience for Zuma, which was why he was displeased now.

"I really don't care what your reasons are, or what you think you need," Zuma said in a soft voice that was an ill-disguised sneer. "My money is mine and mine alone, and I don't want to hear of your spending it without my permission. Otherwise," and now he leaned back against the couch, hands clasped at the back of his head, eyes half-lidded, "I may just make public some... incriminating information."

His mother – weak, pathetic woman that she was – bit her lower lip and looked down. The boyfriend glared balefully at Zuma, but said nothing.

There was really nothing they could do, either, because Zuma was very good at staying in control of the situation. He had several "friends" to whom he paid a nice sum, so that if Zuma ever felt the need to (falsely) accuse his mother and her beau of the moment of child molestation, they would be his "witnesses." Zuma was such a widely-adored celebrity, no one would take the word of an often-drunk too-young mother and her trashy lover over Zuma's and his paid support.

Funny how a ploy he never would have dreamed of a year ago gave him such a grim satisfaction concocting, now.

"So do dispose of whatever nasty sex toys you bought with _my _money," Zuma said with a trace of boredom, twirling a strand of hair around his index finger, "and there'd better not be a similar lapse in the future." He stood, made a show of tossing his hair over his shoulder, and strode from the room.

"Dammit, Kimiko," he heard the boy-toy snarl at his mother as he walked down the hall, "why do you let that stuck-up brat push you around?"

"I'm sorry, Tetsu," she sobbed.

She was always crying recently, Zuma noted, his upper lip curling in disgust as he moved out of hearing range. Really, what a pathetic, sniveling little woman his mother was –

A wave of dizziness overcame him, stopping him in his tracks. He blinked, trying to clear his head. Had everything gone gray for a minute? He could have sworn he'd seen black mountains...

But no, he was imagining things. How irritating. He rubbed the back of his neck, absently trying to soothe his discomfort. Really, who'd ever heard of a gray landscape with black mountains, anyway?

A black light flashed; something small and glowing hung in mid-air before him. Then, pain like Zuma had never known racked his body. He yelled, then clenched his teeth against the fire in his nerves.

He heard the servants (and his mother?) come running, but he never saw them. He only felt that this terrible, mind-blowing pain would go away if he took the thing floating in front of him.

Trembling, angry, Zuma lashed out and snatched it.

Blackness engulfed him.

OoOoOoO

Sukiko Hideki lay on her four-poster bed, absently leafing through a preppy magazine. She utterly despised such things, but she was bored and all she had that was actually interesting were voodoo dolls, which were no fun because they didn't _work. _

At fourteen, she was a girl who might be considered mildly pretty if her expression weren't perpetually sour. Her black hair was slightly scruffy, and she often kept it tied back in a ponytail. Her eyes were a hard gray that expressed disdain very well – which they were doing now, as they scanned one of the articles gushing over some celebrity (thankfully not her mother, which would have been embarrassing in addition to disgusting). She preferred to dress plainly, but her clothes were all high-quality; after all, her family _was _wealthy.

However, another effect of having a lot of money was boredom.

"This is stupid," she groused to herself, sitting up and chucking the magazine across the room.

The sound of the classy apartment's door opening alerted her to the return of her father. She knew it was her father, because her mother made a lot more of a ruckus coming and going. Sukiko sighed, and turned on the TV in her room, so she could pretend not to have heard.

A knock at the door, and then Rinsuke Hideki, Sukiko's father, entered the room.

"Hi, baby," he smiled, kissing her head. "How was school today?"

"Fine," Sukiko deadpanned without looking away from the TV.

Her father's smile faded momentarily, and then returned at full caliber. "That's nice. I'm about to start dinner; what would you like?"

"Food," she responded unhelpfully, ignoring him more pointedly. Why didn't he go _away, _already?

"Food it is," was Rinsuke's lame attempt at humor. "I'll call you when it's ready." He paused, obviously hoping for Sukiko to stop giving him the cold shoulder.

Sukiko didn't – and hadn't, for the past year or so. "Sure," she said, with a hint of impatience now.

When she said nothing more, Rinsuke left the room.

Sukiko shot a contempt-filled glance at the closed door, then flicked her eyes back to the TV screen.

She watched whatever show was on without really paying attention to it. After a few minutes, she started to notice that the temperature seemed to be dropping. She frowned, and stood, moving to her dresser. She took out a blue sweater and pulled it on. Being cold on top of bored was _so _not her idea of fun.

But it kept getting colder... and was it her, or was her room slightly more colorless than usual?

Starting at the base of her neck, liquid fire slid down her veins. Breath hissing out between her teeth, Sukiko fell to her knees, hugging herself. What the hell was _that? _

Something hanging just above her drew her eyes; Sukiko squinted up at it. Whatever it was, it was small, dark, and glowing, and she had the craziest instinct to reach out and snatch it.

Within seconds, the instinct became a driving need; Sukiko obediently reached towards it.

When she touched it, she blacked out.

OoOoOoO

Yumi Takashi carefully reapplied her mascara and eyeshadow, then moved on to lipstick. All of it was black, of course. Yumi had found that if she dressed in the "gothic" style, people looked at her more often. She enjoyed the attention, and didn't particularly care (if she even knew) that people called her "slut" behind her back.

She fluffed her bleached pigtails, combing through them briefly with her fingers. Yumi beamed at the mirror, picked up her purse, and left the bathroom.

Yumi was very happy with her life. She never watched the news, so she didn't know or care what state the rest of the world was in. She paid attention in school, and tried her very best, and since she put her best effort in, she didn't care that she got mostly D's and F's; she was content in knowing that she had tried. And if her grades were slightly worse now than they were a year ago, well, brain failure could be part of being a teenager. She was seventeen now, so in three years, when she turned twenty, she would be better at schoolwork again.

"I'm going out, Mom," she called over her shoulder as she left the apartment.

"Be back by ten-thirty, sweetie," Mrs Takashi responded idly, not taking her eyes off the TV.

Another thing that made Yumi happy about her life was her stable family situation. Her father worked and her mother cooked and cleaned; basically everything about her home life screamed "normal."

Yumi was happy it was that way. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her family, not in the slightest. Nope. Everything fine here, folks.

Yumi's brain stopped there, content with that thought the way it stood and not particularly wanting to progress with it any further. It skipped to being curious about the movie she was going to see that evening.

The movie theatre was packed when she got there. She had to wait in line for twenty minutes, and the movie was already starting by the time she was able to squeeze into a seat in the back corner of the theatre. Still, Yumi didn't mind. It was an adventure, of sorts. She giggled to herself, because that thought was funny – the movie she was seeing was about an adventure, so thinking about an adventure was sort of an inside joke.

The movie got off to a good start, but Yumi found it difficult to enjoy it. It was colder in the theatre than she had expected, especially since it was so packed. She started to wish she had brought a coat.

Then, the back of her neck started to hurt. Yumi rubbed it absently, trying to stay focused on the movie. Except then, the sound seemed to stop. And the movie froze where it was, too. Everything went gray.

Yumi looked around, confused. She was the only one moving. She was about to poke the guy next to her and ask what was going on, when a blinding pain worse than anything she'd ever felt flooded her body. She screamed and curled in on herself.

This wasn't happy or fun! She whimpered quietly, closed her eyes, and hoped desperately that the pain would go away.

Was something moving in front of her? She cracked an eye open to peek up and see. Yes, there was a little black beeping thing, hovering right in the air. How was it doing that?

Curious, she grabbed at it.

She didn't even have enough time to scream again before she blacked out.

OoOoOoO

Keiko Hanasu watched the tennis court, bored yet still interested enough to keep watching the game. It being Sunday afternoon, it wasn't an official practice, and most of the young women playing were from the senior class that had just graduated. Keiko would have graduated with them, but there had been complications regarding what grade she should be put in when her family had moved to Japan eight years ago, and she had ended up a grade below the rest of her age group because of it. Not that it mattered.

As it happened, the game was just ending, and so Keiko waited to meet up with her friends who had been playing.

"Great game," she told them with enough enthusiasm that it sounded sincere.

The others smiled and thanked her. Entering into the topic of the latest gossip, the group started to move forward.

"I'll catch up with you later," Keiko said, staying where she was. "Catch up with you later, 'kay?"

The girls nodded assent and murmured the appropriate response like trained dogs. Then, at last, they left.

Keiko waited a moment more, leaning against the fence enclosing the court. She craned her neck to watch the entrance of the girls' locker room, pink-tipped purple hair falling into her green eyes. American-born, Keiko was at least a head taller than the other girls her age. She took part in her fair share of athletics, and so she stayed in shape.

Spotting the girl she was waiting for leave the locker room, she smiled. Sora Takenouchi, newly-graduated tennis star and co-creator (not to mention voice actor) for the new hit TV series called "Digimon."

Most people believed that events that had taken place both four and eight years ago had been part of that production of said TV series before the producers decided to change it and have it be an animated series, but sometimes, Keiko wondered. Because she wondered, she kept her eye on anyone associated with the TV show.

Keiko watched Sora meet up with her friend, Tai Kamiya, who sometimes walked her home from tennis practices. She stayed a moment more after they were gone, then snorted quietly to herself and left.

Keiko tucked her hands into her jean pockets as she walked. Outwardly, she was a classy, smiling eighteen-year-old, charming and friendly – not to mention intelligence. In actuality, she was a shrewd and conniving young woman with more than a hint of malice. Manipulative to her core, she was good at getting what she wanted, and this would be no different.

For no reason other than pure instinct, Keiko believed the so-called "Digital World" actually existed, and she would like nothing better than to set its inhabitants free in the human world.

Then, perhaps, some chaos would bring changes to her boring day-to-day reality, and it would be _fun _to be alive for once.

Keiko paused, realizing that while she had been lost in thought, the world had slowed and gone gray around her. A tremor went through her, something that felt like liquid fire sliding down her veins. It might have hurt, but a chillingly still pool of darkness had collected around her, and it numbed whatever pain there would have been.

Therefore, Keiko had her wits about her when a dark, glowing object began to drift slowly in front of her.

_A digivice, _her mind supplied the term for it, _like from the Digimon TV show. _

This was just the opportunity she'd been waiting for.

She smiled as she reached out and took it.

OoOoOoO

Hiiro Doumei sat in the bleachers of his school's basketball court, doing homework. Except for him, the gymnasium was empty; he preferred working when it was quiet, and with two younger brothers and an older sister at home, it was hardly ever quiet _there. _

A year ago, Hiiro would have procrastinated on his homework, putting it off as much as possible. Over the past year, though, he'd slowly gotten better at school, and now he was one of the best kids in the class. His new intellectual skills had come at a price, however – his social skills. Oh, sure, he'd hang out with friends sometimes, but he very quickly became uncomfortable with them, and always ended up ditching them right when they really wanted to be with him. It wasn't long before no one was willing to spend time with him.

Hiiro played idly with his pencil, brow knit with concern. He really shouldn't have let that happen, but it almost felt like he couldn't help it; like it was out of his control.

_I'm sixteen, _he thought tiredly to himself, _so why can't I seem to stay friends with anyone?_

He sighed, running his fingers through his spiky brown hair, hazel eyes struggling to remain fixed on his homework. Giving up, he stretched his lanky body and stood. He'd finished with all the homework that was due tomorrow, and he'd have a chance to finish the rest at home that evening. Sitting on cold bleachers for an hour or so, as he had just done, made him sore.

Was someone watching him? He looked up at the rafters, where he thought he felt someone staring at him from.

Was that a flash of white? It was gone too quickly; he couldn't be sure. But the feeling of being watched was gone, so he shook his head, gathered up his homework and school things, and left the gym.

As he walked, it seemed to grow colder. Hiiro frowned, shifting his bag to the other shoulder.

Yes, it was definitely getting colder. The back of his neck was heating up, though. That was so bizarre. Was he getting sick?

The world around him slowly dulled, and grew gray and fuzzy. Hiiro stopped completely now, and looked around. Something was wrong.

Pain seared through him. He yelled, dropping his bag as he fell to his knees, hands flying to the back of his neck.

"Wha – what the hell?" he gasped, flinching at the pain he felt.

A flash of black light, so fast he wasn't sure he'd even seen it. Something hummed as it hovered in front of him, black and glowing.

He squinted at it. Was it beeping?

The undeniable urge to reach for it swept over him; he gave in without a thought.

Pure and utter darkness swallowed him before he could scream.

OoOoOoO

Takori Kaboshi sat on his bed in his room, staring out the window at nothing.

His dark eyes were dull and lifeless; his tousled black hair was tangled and greasy with neglect. His body was slightly malnourished; he only ate when food was placed in front of him, and even then he didn't usually eat all of it.

The doctor had described him as "lost within his own mind." It was an apt description.

Because he was not a danger to himself or others, he had not been admitted to a mental institution, though he had weekly appointments with a psychiatrist.

He had been this way for nearly a year, and barely spoken one word during that time period. He hadn't spoken at all for the last three months.

Takori was in the pits of despair.

When the world stilled and grayed around him, he didn't notice.

When a coldness unlike any other filled him, he ignored it.

When the dark device appeared, glowing and floating before him, there was no pain; only an intensifying feeling of darkness.

Takori slowly turned his head so that he faced the hovering thing. He regarded it without thought or feeling for a long minute, and then slowly, painfully slowly, extended his hand and brushed the device gently with his fingers.

The darkness surrounded him, but he didn't care.

OoOoOoO

Ryuki Inajima examined the new world around him. He had come here when he had touched a mysterious glowing black object that had appeared before him. He still had it now, and upon further examination, it was a black device with red buttons, identical to the "digivices" from the TV show called Digimon except in coloring.

He had woken to find himself in this world of grays, and as he walked around and explored, he felt as if he belonged here more than he ever had anywhere else, especially in the past year.

The creature who had introduced himself as BlackGatomon walked on all-fours beside him, expression unreadable. He'd said nothing else, so Ryuki had deduced on his own that he was in some demented version of Digimon's "Digital World."

As they came to a stream, Ryuki paused to examine his reflection. So, if something had color, it was dimmed here, but not totally erased, he noticed as he tucked a strand of his mid-back-length black hair behind his ear, green eyes narrowed. The fifteen-year-old turned from the stream and continued on in another direction.

He held the digivice in his hand, watching the screen. He figured it represented itself with a red dot, for that was what moved as he moved when he turned it on.

There were seven more red dots scattered about.

Ryuki moved towards the closest one, BlackGatomon silent at his side.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

A/Ns: D'Archmon is not an original Digimon; look her up on Google Image Search if you want a better idea of what she looks like.

I hope all the introductions to the Darkly Destined went alright; it may or may not be apparent, but it was difficult to come up with something original for each one.

The Dark Spores, as you probably noticed, do _not _affect everyone the same way. They are changing the Darkly Destined at different paces to suit the dark crests; as each dark crest is different, each Spore will change their host in a different way. Keiko and Takori's Spores, for instance, have made much faster progress than the others. That's why they didn't feel the pain that accompanied everyone else on their trip to Corrupted Data. This will be explained more when it comes up in the story. But just so you know – no, not all Dark Spores make you smarter and more athletic, or even make you completely evil. That's what Ken's did. The children Oikawa put Dark Spores in did the same thing because they were _copies _of Ken's, and so did the same thing.

I hope this makes sense. Please feel free to ask questions if there's anything you're confused about.


	3. A Good Team?

A/Ns: Thank you very much to the people who (already! OO) have reviewed and/or have this story on their favorites list! I greatly appreciate it. )

Also, just so you know, I've recently started a livejournal account – I'll post time frames for updates there, as well as the fic itself and any commentary I may have relating to it. The link is the homepage address in my profile, so you can check it out if you like. ;;

Warnings and disclaimers from chapter one.

OoOoOoO

Chapter 3:

A Good Team?

OoOoOoO

D'Archmon made sure she was out of anyone's possible view before inspecting the nearby mansion more closely.

The fact that the dark digivices had flown into the human world from this place was a bad sign; it meant Kolmon was somehow involved, as he was the one who lived there. D'Archmon wasn't certain she'd be able to hold her own against him in a fight.

Well, if she played her cards right, that wouldn't matter.

"Harpymon, Unimon," D'Archmon beckoned her companions over. "I want you two to find the Darkly Destined. Capture them, and their Digimon as well if you can – but the Digimon are expendable. If necessary, we can get them when they reconfigure. The children are the priority. Use any means necessary, but try not to hurt the children themselves."

"What will you do?" Unimon asked, after he and Harpymon had nodded their assent.

"I'm going to try and gather some information – the more Lord Azulongmon knows, the better," D'Archmon said firmly.

"Alright," Harpymon frowned pensively. "Be careful, D'Archmon."

"Remember the same for yourself," D'Archmon smiled tightly. "Now, go."

They went.

D'Archmon turned back towards the mansion. Time to sneak in.

She flew up to the nearest window, trying not to move too fast or too much, so as not to draw attention to herself. This was the most vulnerable moment, when she was most easily spotted. She had to be wary.

Thankfully, she was able to reach the window and open it without any trouble. Breathing a sigh of relief, D'Archmon crept inside.

She stuck to the shadows, moving soundlessly. She went downwards, as the pattern she had observed in evil Digimon was that they usually liked to be underground since it was out of sight and difficult for an enemy to sneak in.

Well, it _was _difficult – but it wasn't impossible.

She froze as she passed the door to the drawing room, which was slightly ajar.

"So those five have gone to find their humans, eh?" Kolmon's voice reached her ears. D'Archmon tilted her head to listen as she sought the next descending stairwell.

"Yes," came the voice of Myotismon, "and they'll lead the children here when they've found them."

"You got lucky," drawled Piedmon's voice. "If it had been any less than five of us, the deal would have been off."

"I guess I _was_ lucky, wasn't I?" Kolmon responded, a little less cheeriness in his tone now.

D'Archmon found the stairs, and went down, mulling over what she had heard.

So, five Digimon who associated themselves with Myotismon and the Dark Masters had been chosen as partners for the Darkly Destined, and they were all working with Kolmon.

_Not good, _D'Archmon thought grimly to herself as she reached the bottom of the stairway.

She eyed the pillars in the room warily. She could sense a dark power radiating from them. It took her a moment to realize what it was – the dark crests! The Darkly Destined could _not _be allowed to have them, but this was exactly the place where they were coming!

Mentally reaching for some of the power given her by Lord Azulongmon, she raised her hand. Glowing, she commanded the crests, "_Scatter!_"

The dark crests quivered for a moment, then shot out and vanished.

D'Archmon sagged, sighing. She had not been able to send them outside of Corrupted Data, but from what she could tell, that had gone to all corners of this dark realm. At the very least, she would have time to attempt to capture the Darkly Destined and report to Lord Azulongmon before they were found again.

Were those voices she heard coming towards her?

Cursing softly to herself, D'Archmon fled.

OoOoOoO

"Itaro? Itaro, wake up!" A rough hand on his shoulder shook him. He groaned, and the shaking stopped. "Itaro?"

Itaro sat up, eyes squinted shut, and rubbed the back of his neck. Finally, he opened his eyes, and all confusion was forgotten in the face of surprise and fear.

Gray, everywhere around him. Gray trees, gray earth, gray skies. It was somehow both calming and intimidating at the same time.

"Where am I?" he asked, turning to the person next to him. "Oh... uh... Hiiro?" Itaro's eyebrows shot up. Hiiro Doumei was in the same class as him, but otherwise he'd never really interacted with the other boy. Still, it was a comfort to see a familiar face.

"I don't know where we are," Hiiro said, answering Itaro's initial question. "I just woke up a few minutes ago. This," he brandished a small dark object, "was beeping. There were red dots on the screen – see, they're still there now – and since one of them moved when I did, I figured it represented me, and that meant other red dots would probably be other people. You were closest, so I found you first."

"What is that thing?" Itaro pointed at the black device. "That's what brought me here in the first place, I think!"

"You have one, too," Hiiro informed him, pointing at Itaro's closed fist.

Startled, Itaro opened his hand. Sure enough, there was the black object he'd touched just before blacking out.

"Hey," he gasped, "this is one of those things from that Digimon show!"

"It's...?" Hiiro frowned at his device. "I don't watch much TV. So, do you know what it is?"

"I think it's called, uh – a digivice! That was it." Itaro looked around with trepidation. "Is this the Digital World, then?"

"Yes and no," an unfamiliar voice answered his question. Itaro and Hiiro both jumped to their feet and whirled to face whoever had snuck up behind them. It was a child-sized person in a strange wizard costume. Green eyes regarded them from under a wide-brimmed, slightly frayed pointed hat. "This is an alternate face to the Digital World, known as Corrupted Data. But, how did you know about the Digital World at all...?"

"Who are _you?_" Itaro asked it – him? – warily, ignoring the question.

"My name is Wizardmon," was the response. Wizardmon then turned to face Hiiro. "I am your Digimon partner. Now, an answer to _my_ question, if you would?"

"There's a TV show about it," Hiiro shrugged, not interested in _that _topic. "What did you mean, 'Digimon partner'? What's going on?"

"You have been chosen," Wizardmon told them, a note of sadness in his voice. "Those devices indicate that." He gestured at the digivices. "Every chosen child has a Digimon partner. 'Digimon' is short for 'Digital Monster,' and we reside in the Digital World, Corrupted Data, and the bridge between your world and ours."

"Chosen children – like, the DigiDestined?" Itaro asked curiously. Who would have thought that show was actually _real?_ Or at least, based off a real place?

"How do you know about them?" Wizardmon seemed genuinely startled.

"There's a TV show," Itaro repeated. "Say, are you the same Wizardmon as the one featured on it?"

Wizardmon just looked completely baffled. "Do... do you know Kari? And Tai?"

"Kari... that's a girl in our class, isn't she?" Hiiro seemed glad to grab on to something in the conversation he could follow.

"Yeah," Itaro affirmed. "She and that group of friends she hangs out with came up with the Digimon TV show."

"Ah," Wizardmon nodded, as if that explained a lot. "Well, then, yes, I suppose I am the same Wizardmon." He chuckled. "Kari is your age, then? Goodness, the last time I saw her she was much younger."

"Enough idle chatter," growled a rough voice. Wizardmon tensed and turned to glare at the intruder. Hiiro and Itaro also examined the newcomer, though with curiosity rather than anger.

It was a black dinosaur-like thing, slightly smaller than Wizardmon. Yellow eyes glowered at them.

"You are Itaro?" it demanded of Itaro. Startled at being addressed directly and by name, not to mention slightly scared by the cranky creature, Itaro simply nodded. The thing snorted in disgust. "Well, I'm your partner. BlackAgumon," it – he – said his name with some grumpiness, as if not quite willing to admit that he and BlackAgumon were in any way related.

"Nice to meet you?" Itaro responded uncertainly, put off by the Digimon's snarling.

Hiiro glanced at Wizardmon contemplatively. It was hard to tell, since most of Wizardmon's face was covered, but it seemed as if his 'partner' knew BlackAgumon from somewhere – and didn't like him. Or at least, that was the vibe Hiiro got.

"Hrmph," BlackAgumon grumbled. "Well, come on." He grabbed Itaro's wrist and started pulling him in the direction he had come from.

"Wait," Itaro protested. "Where are we going?"

"Kolmon's mansion."

Hiiro gave Wizardmon another curious look when the Digimon stiffened.

"But, why would we go there?"

BlackAgumon stopped, dropped Itaro's hand, and turned to glare at the boy. "Because I say so," he growled. "I'm your partner, so you will listen to me. And you don't exactly have anywhere else to go, do you?" Itaro looked at him unhappily, but nodded. "Good. Follow me."

"No," Wizardmon interjected firmly. "Whether we have anywhere else to go or not, we will _not _go to that place."

"Kolmon's on our side," BlackAgumon told him shortly. "It's a good place to gather the children and tell them what they need to know. I don't care whether _you _go or not, but your partner probably wants to meet the other humans, right?" Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed Itaro's wrist again and stalked off, presumably towards the mansion.

"Well – I would like to meet the others," Hiiro admitted, giving Wizardmon an apologetic look as he began to follow BlackAgumon and Itaro.

Wizardmon stared after him, a troubled look in his eyes. After a moment or so, he shook his head, sighed, and followed his partner.

OoOoOoO

Zuma sat in an armchair in the drawing room, arms crossed, his expression betraying his boredom and little else. The little bat-thing that had called itself DemiDevimon and now followed him around was perched on the arm of the chair, grinning smugly to itself about something or other.

"The other children will be here soon," the creature that called itself Myotismon told him curtly.

"Whatever," Zuma muttered, hoping they wouldn't be. The other human here at least had kept her distance, showing as little desire to interact with him as he had to interact with her. He couldn't expect that however many other people were in this strange place would do the same.

"So – Zuma, was it?" the thing called Kolmon began in an annoyingly cheerful voice. "What do you think of Corrupted Data so far?"

Zuma just gave the thing his best 'you are _so _not worth my time' look, then turned his head away and ignored it.

He thought he heard the girl called Sukiko snicker nastily from her secluded corner, but it was muffled so maybe he imagined it.

Kolmon gave them both peeved looks. "Really, DemiDevimon, ViElecmon, you should encourage them to be more social."

DemiDevimon poked Zuma with one of its wings. Zuma leaned away and glared at it. "You heard him," DemiDevimon urged. "Be more friendly."

"Like hell I will," Zuma said crossly, pushing it away. DemiDevimon let out a startled squawk, falling off the chair to the floor before it was able to catch itself.

ViElecmon snorted, but did not, Zuma noted with some envy, follow up on Kolmon's advice.

Sukiko smirked at him. Zuma scowled back. Wherever he was, he didn't like it – no one had _any _respect for him _at all. _

"Oh, my god," a breathless feminine squeal echoed harshly in the awkward silence. "You're that model! _Zuma Masuko!_" A blonde girl a few years older than him stood in the doorway, a stupid grin plastered across her face.

_Oh, no, _Zuma thought with a sinking feeling, _not only am I stuck in this hellpit, I'm stuck here with a _fangirl.

The girl practically _pranced _up to him. "Hi, nice to meet you!" she gushed. "I'm Yumi Takashi! Can I have your autograph?"

"No," Zuma said, giving her one sour look before haughtily ignoring her.

"You're right," the girl said thoughtfully, "I don't have any paper on me. Or even a pen."

A groan came from the direction of the doorway. The girl gasped.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Keramon! I totally was just ignoring you!" She returned to the doorway, and picked up the bug-looking-thing standing there to hug it. "I didn't mean to! Sorry!"

The look on the thing's – Keramon's – face was so pathetic Zuma spared it half a second of pity.

Sukiko was not as generous; she burst into a fit of giggles.

Thus, Zuma realized smugly, drawing the stupid girl's attention to her.

"Another girl!" Yumi proclaimed happily, putting Keramon down. "Awesome! I was worried I'd be the only one!" She walked over to Sukiko and held out her hand, grinning. "Nice to meet you! What's your name? What's your Digimon's name?"

"Sukiko Hideki," Sukiko responded with a contempt-filled look at Yumi's outstretched hand. "He's ViElecmon." She then walked to another corner of the room, plainly showing that she was not in the least bit interested in spending more time than absolutely necessary with Yumi. ViElecmon followed her after smirking cruelly in Keramon's general direction.

"What a wonderful time we're going to have," Zuma thought he heard the thing called Piedmon mutter sarcastically.

_I couldn't agree more, _Zuma sighed bitterly.

OoOoOoO

"They seem to be congregating," Ryuki mused, examining the screen of his digivice. "How do they know where to go? Well, we're quite close to one of them. Let's go meet up with him. Or her," he amended thoughtfully.

"Sounds like a plan," Strabimon shrugged. "Let's go, Takori," he said, taking his partner's hand again and gently leading him forward.

Takori's blank eyes merely stared off into space, but he walked where Strabimon led him.

Ryuki supposed it was lucky that Strabimon seemed to have instantly known Takori's name; the younger boy had been completely unresponsive to any attempts to communicate. BlackGatomon also said nothing when spoken to, but at least one could tell from his body language that he had heard you in the first place.

The foursome had walked in silence for a few minutes when BlackGatomon leapt silently up to Ryuki's shoulder, focusing sharply on something just ahead. Taking that to mean that they had found whoever the closest red dot represented, Ryuki lengthened his stride to catch up to whoever it was.

The person was a girl – though 'young woman' might have been more appropriate, and she was about half a head taller than Ryuki. She was also obviously not Japanese. Ryuki watched her warily; there was something about her that seemed... off-putting.

"Ah, someone else? _Two _people," she rose an eyebrow when Strabimon led Takori into view. She smiled at them, and though the smile seemed sincere, Ryuki distrusted it. Strabimon, on the other hand, smiled tentatively back.

The Digimon beside her was a gray rabbit-looking thing, roughly the same height as Strabimon. It, too, smiled at them, but this smile was more obviously mocking.

Ryuki decided that he preferred the rabbit.

"Nice to meet you," the girl said brightly. "I'm Keiko Hanasu, and this is Gazimon." She gestured at the rabbit.

"Ryuki Inajima," Ryuki introduced himself smoothly. "This is BlackGatomon. That's Takori Kaboshi and his partner Strabimon."

"Is there something wrong with him?" Keiko asked, eyeing Takori with curious interest.

"No," Strabimon responded defensively. Ryuki shot him a look, and Strabimon reluctantly backed down, but he still radiated indignity.

"I just met him, so I don't know," Ryuki told Keiko. "He's unresponsive."

"I see," Keiko was obviously intrigued, but Ryuki's tone had warned her to drop it, so she let the subject go. "Gazimon says she knows a place where we can meet the other humans who came here – you coming?"

"There'll be food and beds and Digimon who can explain things to you," Gazimon assured him slyly.

Ryuki stared at her long enough to make her squirm; her ears and tail drooped slightly, and after a few moments she could no longer make eye contact.

Satisfied that she knew he wasn't about to buy into every half-truth she told him, Ryuki nodded. "We'll go."

OoOoOoO

"The _what?_"

"Darkly Destined," Gennai said grimly in response to Davis's startled squawk. "Their crests would be the opposite of yours; cowardice to courage, solitude to friendship, hate to love, and so on."

"But... they're kids like us, aren't they?" Mimi protested. "Why would they do... whatever evil it is they're going to do?"

"That's what Azulongmon, the other sovereign, and I don't like about this," Genna explained. "The dark digivices and crests were sealed in the place you call the Dark Ocean, and they were never supposed to even _have _children chosen for them. Until we find out more about the situation, and have at least tried to take care of it ourselves, we'd like you to stay out of it."

"But..." Tai's protest was cut off by a look from Gennai.

"I'm sorry, Tai, but this is for your safety as well. Currently, the Darkly Destined are at the Dark Ocean. Not only would it be a bad idea for some of you to go there," and here he looked pointedly at Ken and Kari, "but nearly all the evil Digimon you've faced would be there – in their element. Azulongmon felt very strongly that you should not be involved unless absolutely necessary."

"If you say so," TK agreed reluctantly, "though I still think we'd be able to take care of it."

"Say," Izzy began thoughtfully, "what if the reason for these Darkly Destined being called is because something was done to them to _make _them evil?"

Ken, unsurprisingly, was the first to catch on to what he meant. "You mean like the Dark Spores."

"Precisely," Izzy affirmed. "If all the evil Digimon we've faced reconfigured at the Dark Ocean, then MaloMyotismon would be there, too, and he at least had knowledge of, if not access to, the Dark Spores. And the Dark Spores being – well – _dark, _it's entirely possible that he would be able to attain them at the Dark Ocean."

Gennai looked intrigued – but also worried. "If that's the case, we'll have to try and stop the Dark Spores from completely taking root and flowering before it's too late."

"Isn't there anything we can do to help?" Kari asked mournfully. Gatomon placed a paw on her leg, looking up at her with sympathy and concern.

Gennai frowned in thought. "As soon as the information would be made available in your world, see if you can find out about anyone who is reported to have disappeared in about the next twenty-four hours. Also, see what you can find out about them."

"Will do!" Yolei promised, her face set determinedly.

"Thank you," Gennai replied, smiling tiredly. "I'll be in touch. You should all probably head back to your world, now."

"Right," Matt agreed, running a hand through his hair. "But don't forget to keep us posted, okay?"

"Of course," Gennai bowed, and left.

With troubled looks and heavy hearts, the DigiDestined returned to the human world.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

A/Ns: Uwah, I feel so guilty writing the DigiDestined as one big group. I haven't been able to do any individual character exposition with them at all yet. xx I promise there will be plenty in later chapters! I just need to get the story rolling, first. ;;

Chapter notes:

– D'Archmon's ability to make the dark crests scatter plot device. I explained it as being the use of power given her by Azulongmon, so I hope that's plausible. I just sort of need the crests to, you know, not be there.

– "Digimon reside in the Digital World, Corrupted Data, and the bridge between the human world and the digital one." Don't worry too much about the "bridge" at present; let's just say it has to do with my eventual merging of Seasons 1 & 2 with Tamers and leave it at that. )

– Black Agumon Machinedramon

ViElecmon Daemon

Gazimon LadyDevimon

The reason I'm telling you this now and not simply waiting until they digivolve back to their original forms is because otherwise you'll end up totally confused. Besides, it's going to be a long time before I get there. ;;

– The scene from Zuma's perspective: referring to all the Digimon as 'it.' This is how Zuma currently regards them, and so from his point of view, that's what they'll be called. I hope that wasn't too confusing.

As always, if there are any questions, please feel free to ask! It helps me to know what points I should be more clear on, and I _will _answer any and all questions. The reason I'm reiterating this is because I'm worried that some things may not be explained as much as they should be, and if that's the case I'd like to rectify it.

Finally, I will attempt to keep the pattern of updating every two weeks or so. Hopefully this will work.


	4. Deal With It

A/Ns: I forgot to mention, except for Keramon, the Darkly Destined Digimon don't follow traditional digivolution paths. For the most part, all their digivolutions are _possible _from the Digimon they started from, though. If you look at the analyzer site I use, there are a lot of digivolutions possible for most Digimon. :)

Oh, and something I forgot to mention explicitly in previous chapters: by my reckoning, all of the Digimon TV series that would have aired in the Darkly Destined's world so far is season one. Season two may be a few episodes in, but the point is, the Darkly Destined have never heard of the Dark Ocean prior to being summoned there. Otherwise, Myotismon and the other evil Digimon might have trouble passing off a few of the lies they're about to tell the poor kids. ;)

Warnings and disclaimers from chapter one.

OoOoOoO

Chapter 4:

Deal With It

OoOoOoO

Yolei was not a patient person; she hated waiting. Even more than that, she hated not being able to do anything _but _wait.

Since that was the way she was, she wasn't about to sit on her hands and do nothing while a group of Spore-corrupted kids became a threat to both worlds.

Which was why she now sat in front of her computer.

"So," Hawkmon mused, watching her type, "you plan to research and see what you can find on information regarding any prophecies that may or may not have been made about the Darkly Destined?"

"That about sums it up," Yolei said grimly. "Prophecies would give us a good idea of what these Darkly Destined could do. Izzy and Ken showed Cody and me how to search for stuff in Gennai's private data files; he gave Izzy the password a few years back so we wouldn't bother him every time we had to check on something or other for the TV show."

"...Isn't that betraying Gennai's trust in some way?"

"Maybe, but if we're going to end up fighting these kids, I want to know something about them first. I'm sure Gennai wouldn't mind; it's not like I'm looking at anything unrelated to the Darkly Destined."

Hawkmon gave her a pensive look, before sighing and moving to sit on his partner's bed. It still felt like going behind Gennai's back to him, but Yolei seemed to feel adamantly about it, so he wouldn't interfere. After all, he trusted her judgement, even if she could be exasperatingly stubborn sometimes.

"Found something!" Yolei announced triumphantly after nearly two hours of search. "It kind of looks like a journal entry instead of a prophecy, actually... 'Should the corrupted digivolution devices fall into the hands of those destined to hold them, it is possible that...'" She trailed off, frowning pensively as her eyes rapidly scanned the screen.

"What is it?" Hawkmon asked, concerned by how pale she suddenly looked. "What would be possible?"

"...Nothing, don't worry about it." Yolei stood and stretched. "I think I'm going to call it a night."

"Yolei..." Hawkmon did _not _like that she was hiding something. What if it were something important, or at least something they should know?

"I just want to consult with Izzy, Ken, and Cody before I go any further into that," Yolei assured him. "It's a little... odd."

"If you say so," Hawkmon said reluctantly. Yolei smiled tiredly at him.

"I'll tell you when I know more."

OoOoOoO

The only warning they had was BlackGatomon's ears twisting and laying flat before a ball of blue-white light blasted at them.

"Down!" Ryuki yelled, dropping and pulling Takori with him. Ahead of them, Keiko and Gazimon both fell to the ground as well.

The ball of light went over them, cutting through the trees behind them and leaving destruction behind it.

Ryuki rose into a crouch, glaring upwards, the direction from which the attack had come.

Flying towards them was what looked like a winged white horse, with a red helmet that covered the upper half of its head. A horn rose from the center of the helmet.

"What is that?" Ryuki demanded.

"That's Unimon, a Champion-level Digimon," Strabimon said helpfully.

It took Ryuki a moment to remember what 'levels' meant; he didn't often watch the Digimon TV show (which he had quickly begun to regret). "Wonderful," he murmured sarcastically. "And I suppose you two are both – ah – Rookies?" he asked Strabimon and Gazimon.

"Unfortunately," Gazimon affirmed sourly. She stood. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to sit here and let him attack us!" she growled. Strabimon nodded, moving to stand protectively in front of Takori.

By this time, Unimon had flown down to land about thirty feet in front of them.

"Human children!" he called. "Come with me, now! Please trust me, it is for your own good. The Digimon as well – if you three resist, I _will _destroy you, however!"

"As if you could!" Gazimon retorted, tensing. "Don't do anything he tells you to, he's an enemy!" She called over her shoulder to the others.

"Lies! You corrupt them!" Unimon snarled. "You dare question my intentions – !"

"Yeah, that's right," Gazimon hissed. "_Electric Stun Blast!_" She braced herself, arms outstretched, electricity jumping jaggedly from her paws.

Unimon flinched when the attack hit, but shook it off very quickly. "Your efforts are futile; you should have just agreed to come with me! _Aerial Attack!_" He opened his mouth, and out came a ball of blue-white light identical to the first.

Gazimon dove out of the way; Strabimon, who had tentatively moved forward to help her, was not as quick. He yelped as the force of the attack drove him back and knocked him flat.

BlackGatomon, until now inactive, abruptly launched himself at Unimon. Having taken Unimon off-guard (being small and dark in a dark environment, he was easy to miss), he connected with the larger Digimon solidly. He was apparently much stronger than he looked; for having a body so small, his tackle had knocked Unimon out of balance.

Unimon stumbled, briefly distracted. Strabimon had recovered by now; he and Gazimon both went on the offensive.

"_Electric Stun Blast!_" Gazimon generated her electricity yet again.

"_Licht Nagel!_" Strabimon's claws glowed brightly, and he made a sweeping motion with his paws. The light arced off his claws in dual crescent shapes.

Both attacks hit Unimon dead on. The horse-like Digimon was hit with such force that he was slammed against the nearest tree. Unimon shuddered as he shakily regained balance. He gave them all a baleful look before turning and abruptly flew off; whether or not he would return was uncertain.

"Well," Keiko said dryly, and with a heavy amount of sarcasm, "_that _was fun."

"Hn." Ryuki snorted. "Let's get to the mansion. It's getting dark."

Strabimon nodded his wordless agreement as Keiko and Gazimon began to lead the way yet again. He took Takori's hand, and started to move forward with them, but stopped when Takori didn't move. In confusion, he looked up at his partner. "Takori?"

Takori was staring blank-eyed in the direction Unimon had gone.

"Come on, Takori," Strabimon said softly, pulling insistently at the boy's hand. Painfully slowly, Takori's head turned towards him. He blinked once, then allowed himself to be lead on by Strabimon.

OoOoOoO

Myotismon surveyed the eight children and their partners from his place at the head of the dinner table. The last of the Darkly Destined had arrived roughly half an hour ago, and after introductions had been made, Kolmon had suggested dinner before explanations. For the most part, the children had been happy to accept that.

Myotismon found the seating arrangements, along with his first impressions of the humans, a good base for early judgements of characters.

The boys Itaro and Hiiro had not hesitated it sitting together – as far from him as possible, at the other end of the table. (Most likely because that fool Wizardmon was Hiiro's partner; he'd have to watch for corruption in that pair.) Itaro seemed an easy-going boy, if slightly ill at ease because BlackAgumon (formerly Machinedramon) was making no secret of his contempt for the human; not to mention that the entire situation was likely intimidating to him. Hiiro, though apparently slightly baffled, was otherwise calm and collected. He spoke politely, and was generally friendly. They were not what Myotismon had had in mind for the Darkly Destined, but they looked as if they could be easily manipulated, so he overlooked that for now.

The haughty boy, Zuma, sat closest to Myotismon on the left. He ignored the others as he ate (though he had been coolly formal when introductions were made), and was obviously becoming increasingly annoyed by DemiDevimon's presence. Myotismon was pleased with this one; he would not need to be manipulated at all to act as a Darkly Destined was expected to act. And moronic though DemiDevimon was, he was at least loyal. They would do.

Across from Zuma was Sukiko. She had sneered at the others, and had surprisingly started off well with ViElecmon (once Daemon), her partner. Aside from the odd snide comment when approached, Sukiko did not seem much inclined to interacting with the others. She seemed a sour sort, and Myotismon did not like her much, but she fit the bill nicely as a Darkly Destined. Myotismon resigned himself to learning to tolerate the brat.

Next to Sukiko was Keiko, then Yumi. Keiko was charming and intelligent, with a slyness about her that meshed well with Gazimon's, who had once been LadyDevimon. The other children had, for the most part, warmed to her in their own way; no cruel comments had been sent her way, and Yumi was chatting animatedly with her. As Yumi came to mind, Myotismon frowned – she was a stupid girl, too chatty and cheerful by far. Keramon, at least, was miserable in her presence, not that Myotismon blamed him. She would be easy to manipulate, to be sure, but an annoyance to put up with. As Darkly Destined, however, neither girl surprised him.

Takori troubled him; silent and empty-eyed, he ate mechanically. On his own, Myotismon had no problem with him – he would no doubt be the easiest to manipulate. However, his partner, Strabimon, was not from Myotismon's group, and seemed to have already known Wizardmon prior to being bonded to Takori. They would be troublesome to deal with, more so than Hiiro and Wizardmon, because Hiiro at least seemed inclined to remain with his fellow humans. Takori would go where Strabimon lead him, and that was more than enough reason to keep an alert eye on them.

Ryuki and BlackGatomon, however, were the pair Myotismon most desired to keep under watch. Ryuki had a suspicious nature, and was wary around the Digimon, and had not yet formed any ties with any of the humans save Takori. (He had arrived with Keiko, but was the only human who had shown any dislike towards the girl, for all that she practically radiated charisma.) Ryuki alone was not much of a concern, for he had already expressed his interest in staying with the group, so Myotismon wouldn't have to worry about how to control the boy. Something about BlackGatomon, however, had lead Myotismon to believe that he may be a threat to their plans.

Perhaps it was because, for all that his coloring and nature were obviously different, he reminded Myotismon too strongly of Gatomon.

Myotismon was disrupted from his musings when Piedmon and Kolmon entered the room. They had decided that only one of them needed to preside over the meal, and so Myotismon had ended up with that duty while Piedmon and Kolmon were in a separate room, working out the finer details of what could and could not be told to the Darkly Destined at this point in time.

"I hope you are all enjoying yourselves," Kolmon began brightly. "I trust the food is satisfactory?"

There was a general murmur of assent, and Hiiro said politely, "Thank you for providing it; it was very generous of you."

"Not at all, not at all," Kolmon waved that off with a smile. "Now I'm afraid we must briefly interrupt your meal, but I'm sure you won't mind – you're all very curious to know what's going on, yes?"

"What gave you that idea?" Sukiko muttered sarcastically, glaring at him impatiently.

"We shall cut straight to the explanations, then," Piedmon began. "From what some of you have said, there is a... 'TV' show about a group of children being summoned into our world, correct?" He didn't wait for an answer before continuing. "Well, like them, you have been chosen; your destiny is to liberate this part of the Digital World, known as 'Corrupted Data.' It was long ago sealed off from the rest of the Digital World, making it extremely unlikely pass the barrier once, and positively impossible to do it twice. This is slowly but surely unbalancing the Digital World, which is why it is absolutely necessary to destroy the barrier."

He was about to continue, but Ryuki interrupted. "I mean no offense, but you _are_ aware that most of you were depicted as villains on the TV show, aren't you?"

"Of course we are, but you must remember this was some years ago," Myotismon answered smoothly. "We have reformed, and only have the Digital World's best interests at heart."

"...I see."

Myotismon was personally surprised that Wizardmon had not spoken out against this vastly untrue claim, but concealed it; he nodded at Piedmon to continue.

"Like the other DigiDestined, you have crests, and these crests – along with your digivices – are the key to breaking down the barrier. We had the crests here for you, but unfortunately, they were dispersed before you arrived." Piedmon scowled, still furious about that, especially since they hadn't been able to catch the Digimon responsible.

"You see," Kolmon picked up the story from there, "there are still misguided Digimon who believe that tearing away a piece of the Digital World is beneficial – and I believe some of you have met one already, no?" He raised an eyebrow at Ryuki, Takori, and Keiko. "But the damage has been done, and so we must go and search out your crests. But never fear, we will be with you the entire time – and of course your partners, too – so you will be perfectly safe."

"Hold on," Zuma interrupted, frowning. "As far as I can tell, none of us has agreed to anything yet, so I don't see why you seem to be assuming that we're all going along with this."

Kolmon stared at him blankly. "Why wouldn't you?"

"There has been a lot going on, to take in all at once," Ryuki agreed, ignoring Kolmon. "Perhaps we should discuss this amongst ourselves, first – humans only?"

"That sounds like a good idea," Hiiro said thoughtfully. "It would also be an opportunity for us to get better acquainted."

"I'm all for it," Keiko assented easily.

"A secret meeting? Cool!" Yumi grinned around at the other humans. "Can we do it now?"

Sukiko shrugged. Itaro smiled hesitantly and said, "I don't see why we couldn't..."

Myotismon did not like where this was going at all. He exchanged glances with Piedmon and Kolmon. If the children consulted only with each other, with no Digimon present, it was possible that they would agree to something that the three of them would not be happy with. But the children having all agreed to the meeting already, there was no way to tell them "no" and still come off as the good guys.

"There is a communal lounge upstairs," Kolmon finally admitted, albeit reluctantly.

"Excellent," Keiko smiled sweetly at them. "Could you direct us to it?"

"It's up the grand staircase, the first set of double-doors to the left," Kolmon grumbled. The children all stood (Takori pulled up by Ryuki), and began to exit the room.

"Wait here, Keramon, okay?" Yumi patted her partner on the head, much to Keramon's disgruntlement.

"Um..." Strabimon began hesitantly. Ryuki glanced over his shoulder at him.

"I'll take care of Takori," he said simply, leading Takori out of the room and closing the door once the other humans had left.

Myotismon, furious but helpless, could only glower at the closed door.

OoOoOoO

A/Ns: And so ends chapter four:) My notes for the chapter:

– Gennai's private files. I don't think even Gennai would have the patience to deal with being asked about something related to the TV show every time the DigiDestined either didn't know it or had doubts about it (it being some eight years since the first adventure), and it's not like they would usually go snooping in things that aren't their business – especially Izzy and Ken, who were the only two he had originally given his passwords to. Yolei's being very intrusive here, but it's for a good cause so she doesn't feel too bad about it. (Hawkmon, on the other hand...)

– Ryuki doesn't ask BlackGatomon what his level is, because he already knows it (or rather, he assumes that BlackGatomon is the same level as Gatomon from the TV show, and he's just lucky he's right).

– "Licht Nagel" is German for "light nail," according to Babelfish. Seeing as how Strabimon never appeared on the TV show, I am making up what his attack looks like. (I'm also fudging Gazimon's (though the attack name is correct), because I think the only time you ever see it on the show is during the Etemon episodes in season one, and I neither have those on tape nor have I seen them recently, so if it's inaccurate you'll just have to deal with it.)

– "It's getting dark." There's day and night in the Digital World, so there can darn well be day and night in Corrupted Data, too.

– Myotismon is going to have to deal with the Darkly Destined for a good long while, so of course he's trying to get to know what they're like. Plus, the more you know about someone, the easier it is to control them. As for the accuracy of his judgements, well, he certainly judged Gatomon and Wizardmon correctly in season one, and he was definitely the most strategic of all the DigiDestined's enemies. To come up with the plans he came up with, I figure he would have to a) be very smart and b) have good judgement.

– In regards to the story Piedmon and Kolmon spin for the kids, Wizardmon is not saying anything because he's not suicidal. If he's not cautious about what he does, he just might find himself being dragged behind a tree and deleted by Myotismon (again). Strabimon wouldn't say anything if Wizardmon doesn't for the same reason, and BlackGatomon just doesn't care. The other five, of course, are on Myotismon's side and are going to support the story.

– Not wanting the children to talk amongst themselves with no Digimon present: as has already been noted, several of the Darkly Destined are either smart, sly, cunning, or a combination of the three. (Mainly Hiiro, Keiko, Ryuki, and Zuma.) No way does Myotismon want these kids planning anything without him or his supporters present to veto ideas they don't like. ;)

Wow, a lot of notes this time. o.o;;


	5. Decisions

A/Ns: The first half of this chapter was easy to write... and then I had to struggle for the rest of it. There was more I wanted the Darkly Destined to talk about, but it just didn't fit into the scene. Ah well, there will be plenty of time for them to talk in later chapters.

Warnings and disclaimers from chapter one.

OoOoOoO

Chapter 5:

Decisions

OoOoOoO

_Rrring. Rrring. _

_It's very late for someone to be calling, _Ken thought with surprise, glancing up from the book he was reading in the living room. He set it down, walking over to where the phone was.

"Ken, could you get the phone, please?" Mrs Ichijouji called from the kitchen, unaware that he was already about to do just that.

"Of course," Ken responded, grabbing the phone off its cradle. "Hello?"

"Hello, is this Ken?" The voice sounded strained, but it was familiar.

"Mr Hideki? Yes, it's me. What's wrong?" Ken was disturbed by the distressed tone of the TV show producer. Wormmon crawled out of Ken's room, watching his partner curiously.

"I – my daughter's gone missing," Mr Hideki said heavily. Ken stiffened, remembering only too well Gennai's warning about the Darkly Destined that afternoon. "She was in her room when I got home from work – I checked up on her, I _saw _her there – but when I went to call her for dinner, she was gone. I didn't hear her leave, or... or anything," he finished helplessly. "We live in the same neighborhood as you; I was wondering if you might have seen her around? I've called the police, but... I just thought maybe... You've met Sukiko before, right?"

"Yes," Ken affirmed, recalling a slightly rambunctious and passionate girl of eleven whom he'd met three years ago, shortly after the Digimon TV series had begun the early processes of production. "Mr Hideki, I think I have an idea of what may have happened to your daughter, but first, can you tell me if anything strange happened between when you last saw her and when you went to check on her? Technology acting oddly, for instance?"

"The lights flickered once, and I had to reset the digital clocks, but..." Mr Hideki trailed off as he picked up on Ken's meaning. "Ken, are you suggesting _my _daughter got pulled into the _Digital World?_"

"Something like that," Ken affirmed grimly.

"If that's the case," Mr Hideki said with a good deal of relief, "it should be easy to get her back, right? You and your friends can just go there whenever you like, right?"

Ken hated having to bring him down again after getting his hopes up, but it would be worse to deceive the man. "Actually... I was thinking of something Gennai told us earlier..." Unhappily, he related Gennai's warning about the Darkly Destined to Mr Hideki.

There was a long silence on the other end. Then, Mr Hideki said weakly, "You... you think Sukiko could be..."

"It's a possibility," Ken said softly. "But even if she is, it's certainly not as if we can't do anything about it. Gennai told us that Azulongmon is doing what he can to retrieve them; she'll be found soon, I'm sure. And it's not even a certainty that she even _is _there. I'll call you when I know more, alright?"

"Alright," Mr Hideki agreed, his voice barely more than a hoarse whisper. "...Thank you, Ken..." He hung up.

Ken returned the phone to its cradle. He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair.

"Ken..." Wormmon crawled up to him, looking worried. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Ken assured Wormmon tiredly, with a sad smile. "I just... don't like that there are other kids who have to go through what I did, and that there's really not much I can do about it at the moment."

"I know what you mean," Wormmon said, looking down-hearted. "But you were saved, so I'm sure these children will be, as well."

"I hope so," Ken said softly. He picked up the telephone again.

"Who are you calling?"

"The others. They need to know about this."

OoOoOoO

Sukiko, feeling oddly discomfited by ViElecmon's absence (they'd only just met today, and she didn't even _like _the stupid thing that much!), sat on one of the window seats. The only person standing further from the others than her was the model kid, Zuma, who was leaning against a wall on the opposite side of the room.

Itaro, Hiiro, and Yumi had gravitated towards Keiko, who had settled in a luxurious armchair. The older girl smiled benignly at Sukiko (which Sukiko couldn't quite bring herself to counter with a scowl, much to her surprise), before turning to focus on Ryuki and Takori, sitting on the couch across from her.

"So, what was so important that you had to say it out of earshot of Myotismon and his friends?" Keiko asked Ryuki, her tone pleasant but her eyes gleaming strangely.

Sukiko blinked. Hadn't the private meeting been suggested to orient themselves to being in the Digital World, and decide a course of action? Not that she felt particularly inclined to tramp around Corrupted Data in any case, nor did she like the idea of interacting with these losers more than necessary, but Keiko's question confused her. Sukiko didn't like being confused. She glanced around furiously, silently promising dire injury to everyone if she were the only one out of the loop.

But no, Itaro and Yumi were also apparently baffled by the question, and Hiiro was frowning. Only Zuma looked unsurprised – and Takori, but he didn't count; Sukiko was positive he was mentally retarded or something.

"I just wanted to talk without them listening," Ryuki said plainly. "I don't trust them; reformed or not, I don't think it's a good idea to trust them to protect us. At the very least, I don't want to spend more time with them than absolutely necessary."

"I agree," Hiiro said thoughtfully. "I noticed that both Wizardmon and Strabimon seemed a little uncomfortable around them. I suppose that could just be a result of their past actions, but I'm more inclined to assume that our returning home isn't high on their list of priorities. They didn't even mention it."

"They didn't, did they," Keiko murmured rhetorically. "So whether or not they're telling the truth, we have to assume that using those crests to break down the barrier would take us home."

"Wait, what if they're _not _telling the truth about saving the Digital World?" Itaro asked uncertainly. "What if it hurts it, instead?"

"That's irrelevant," Zuma said dismissively.

"Irrelevant?" Yumi said with some distress. "How is it irrelevant? I don't want to end up hurting other things like Keramon!"

"It's irrelevant because whether or not they're telling the truth, if it ends up being the only way to go home, we'll have to do it anyway," Ryuki explained.

Sukiko snorted. "Who says we want to go home in the first place? This place looks way more interesting than back home, anyway." She turned her nose up imperiously. "How many of you actually want to go back to that boring old world?"

"I do," Itaro retorted defensively.

"I would prefer to as well," Hiiro said firmly.

"I do, too, if I can bring Keramon," Yumi chirped.

The others remained silent.

"Well, at the very least," Ryuki said finally, "we should seek out the crests. From what I've seen of the TV show, they're beneficial as power-boosters, aren't they?"

"Yeah, they help the Digimon digivolve past the Champion level," Keiko explained.

"If you're not trusting Myotismon and those others, why would you trust them?" Sukiko asked flatly. "Most of them are cronies too, you know."

"Maybe, but to digivolve and become stronger, they need to protect us," Ryuki countered. "I think we're more important to them, and so they'll have more reason to support us. Maybe we can't completely trust them yet, but for the most part that's more because we've just met them than because they don't deserve it."

"Okay, so we should go get the crest-thingies then, right?" Yumi looked around at the others expectantly.

Most of the group agreed right off; Zuma and Sukiko hesitated, but finally they assented after pointed looks from both Keiko and Ryuki. Takori, of course, remained practically inanimate.

"But none of the Digimon but our partners are coming with us." Itaro glanced at Keiko, who nodded to affirm this. That, at least, the group was in perfect agreement on.

"Say, what about him?" Yumi asked curiously, pointing at Takori. "Is he just, like, gonna be in rag doll mode the whole time?"

"There's no reason to think otherwise," Ryuki said with a shrug.

"Strabimon will be able to watch him, so I don't think we should worry about it too much," Keiko reasoned.

"Good," Sukiko said at that, giving the mentally retarded boy a disgruntled look. "I'm not a damn babysitter."

Ryuki frowned at her, but Keiko seemed amused.

"Say..." Hiiro glanced around at the others. "How many of us are actually very familiar with the TV show? I've heard of it – some of the... the..."

"DigiDestined," Itaro volunteered helpfully.

"Yes, them. A few of them are in our – mine and Itaro's, that is – class at school. But I've never seen the actual TV show... Who's seen all of it? A synopsis of things we should know at least would be nice."

As it turned out, neither Zuma nor Yumi had ever heard of it. Keiko and Itaro, on the other hand, had seen every episode, and Ryuki had watched it enough to get the general gist of the show. Sukiko's father was the producer, and she had actually been told in depth of the adventures of the DigiDestined, courtesy of the overly talkative Mimi Tachikawa, Davis Motomiya, and Yolei Inoue three years ago, and of course her father talked about it all the time. This being the case, she had, of course, known that the Digital World and Digimon really existed. Much to Sukiko's displeasure, this had unfortunately convinced the others that she knew more about it than anyone else, and it was she they pressed for information.

Unhappy and half-growling, Sukiko reluctantly related all that she could remember of the adventures of the DigiDestined four and eight years ago, along with the initial fight between a Graymon and a Parrotmon twelve years ago, and the danger caused by Diaboromon seven years ago.

"So, this place... the DigiDestined know of it, then? The 'Dark Ocean,' they call it?" Ryuki asked, frowning. "Those Digimon downstairs called it 'Corrupted Data.'

Sukiko shrugged. "From the way it was described to me, it seems to be the same place as where we are now, so maybe it just has two names or something." She scowled. "Anything else, or shall I be required to talk myself hoarse for another half hour?" she asked sourly.

"Sorry to impose on you," Keiko said with a genuinely apologetic smile. "But it seems you do know quite a bit more about our situation than any of the rest of us." Sukiko snorted, but found herself to be mollified, much to her annoyance.

Yumi yawned widely – and somewhat pointedly, unless Sukiko was much mistaken. "I am _tired! _If there's anything else we need to talk about, can't it wait 'til tomorrow?" Yumi whined.

Oh yeah, _that _was certainly discreet. Not.

"I'm rather tired, myself," Keiko said with a weary grin.

"Bed, then," Ryuki said decidedly, and glanced at Takori, who was half-asleep and leaning his head against Ryuki's shoulder. Ryuki looked distinctly uncomfortable, but didn't move. "Zuma, Sukiko, would you mind going to see about room assignments, and tell Myotismon and the others about our plans for the journey while you're at it?"

"Sure," Sukiko agreed, and Zuma shrugged. Sukiko wouldn't usually have listened to even politely-phrased orders such as that one, but it was worth it to see the look on the Digimons' faces when they found out the humans wouldn't be going along with whatever they wanted.

She and Zuma left the room, and walked down the stairs in silence. They entered the dining hall again, and were met immediately with Myotismon's suspicious gaze.

"Where are the rest of you?" He asked.

"Still upstairs," Sukiko replied, and then added nonchalantly, "We decided that when we head out, it will just be us and our partners, though."

Kolmon and Piedmon both looked unpleasantly startled, and Myotismon glared. "Is that so?"

"Yes," Zuma picked it up with a shrug. Sukiko scowled at him; she had wanted to do the talking. "We decided it would be easier to adjust with as few of us as possible, and so that excludes everyone but our partners and us."

"I see," Myotismon pursed his lips, but said nothing more.

"Anyway, we were wondering about where we're sleeping?" Sukiko asked, annoyed with Zuma's stealing the spotlight and no longer willing to sneer at the Digimon. "Since it's late and we're all tired."

"Oh, of course," Kolmon beamed at her. "I was just giving directions to your partners, so they can show each of you to your rooms. Why don't you all go back to your partners, then?" he smiled benignly at the lower-level Digimon.

Sukiko was startled to find herself reminded of Keiko.

DemiDevimon flitted to Zuma's side, and the two left, followed by the other Digimon partners. Sukiko and ViElecmon brought up the rear.

Sukiko glanced over her shoulder once to send one last sneer in Myotismon's direction, but the expression slipped from her face. She turned away, disturbed by the depth of displeasure she had seen in the vampire Digimon's eyes.

OoOoOoO

Despite the late hour, many of the human children lay awake in their beds for a while before finally drifting to sleep... except for Ryuki and BlackGatomon, who stayed up talking long into the night.

OoOoOoO

A/Ns: Sukiko is a pain in the ass to write; she's nasty, but not _that _nasty. (Yet.) Sometimes, it's really hard to find the middle ground between not nasty enough and too nasty for her. Anyway, is Yumi anyone else's favorite Darkly Destined?

– Rinsuke calling Ken: I needed him to call _somebody, _and the only excuse I could think of to call one of the DigiDestined when his daughter's gone missing is that they may have seen her around. Since Ken doesn't live in Odaiba like the rest, I put Rinsuke in the same area as him. (And for those who may be confused, though I doubt anyone else is at this point: Rinsuke Hideki, Sukiko's father, is the same Rinsuke Hideki from chapter one, the producer of the Digimon TV show.)

– Itaro, Hiiro, and Yumi gravitating to Keiko. Keiko is not a nice person – but she _acts _like one, and she's got charisma off the charts. People like her.

– Aside from Hiiro, Itaro, and Yumi, no one else wants to go home. This will be elaborated upon in further chapters.

– Kolmon reminding Sukiko of Keiko. Well, he certainly reminds _me _of Keiko, especially when he's being "nice." Maybe that's just me, though.


	6. Alexander's Journal

A/Ns: I'm sorry this is late! I was at AnimeBoston last weekend and couldn't finish the chapter in time because I had to prepare for that. I'll try to stay on schedule from now on.

Warnings and disclaimers from chapter one.

OoOoOoO

Chapter 6:

Alexander's Journal

OoOoOoO

_Should the corrupted digivolution devices fall into the hands of those destined to hold them, it is possible that Galfmon could return. This could ultimately end in the destruction of both worlds, and it is possible that we may not be there to stop it. Furthermore, I fear that the Destiny Crests will not be enough to stop him, should he gain power again. _

_The Digimon assure me that there are others that could be summoned to protect this world's balance, and that these other protectors have simply not been born to my world yet. Still, I have doubts. To that end, I have convinced the others to give me their digivolution devices, along with Gen's Destiny Crests; we will never be able to return to this world again, but it is a worthwhile sacrifice if we can leave the light of digivolution to lead the way for our successors. _

_I must now bid good-bye to this world, to Gen... and to Quetzalmon. Farewell, my friend. I shall miss you. _

—_Alexander_

OoOoOoO

"And you found this in Gennai's files?" Izzy asked as his eyes perused the extract again.

"That's right," Yolei confirmed. "Isn't it weird?"

Izzy made a wordless sound of agreement, lost in thought. This journal entry brought up many new questions, and he would very much like to know the answers. Who was Alexander? His name definitely seemed to indicate that he was not from Japan; more likely, he was from America or Europe, depending on when he had written this journal. By "Destiny Crests" and "digivolution devices," Izzy assumed he meant the crests and digivices, which were now obviously elided names. The journal also read as if it were hastily written – for some reason, Alexander (whoever he had been) had not had the time to put more effort into it.

But these musings were minor compared to the other questions Izzy had.

"He means the Darkly Destined when he refers to 'corrupted' digivices, doesn't he?" Cody asked rhetorically, his tone solemn. Yolei nodded.

"I think so."

"Who was Galfmon, and why would he be such a threat if the Darkly Destined were summoned?" Ken wondered out loud, echoing Izzy's concerns.

"I'm not sure," Izzy responded, shaking his head. "I remember Leomon once told us that there had been DigiDestined before us, but Gennai didn't say yesterday whether this is the first time there have been Darkly Destined or not, so I can't say if Galfmon came to power because of Darkly Destined before. It's highly doubtful, but..."

"Wait, what?" Yolei said in bewilderment. "Back track. There were DigiDestined before you guys?"

"Leomon hinted at it, when we were on File Island," Izzy explained. "This is a wonderful lead, Yolei, but I'm not sure how we'll be able to get more information without interrogating Gennai, and somehow I don't think he'll be willing to divulge anything, as he's never mentioned this Alexander before."

"Why don't you use the Digimon Analyzer on your computer to look up Quetzalmon?" Tentomon asked. "I've never heard of him, but there should be information on him somewhere, right?"

"Good idea," Izzy smiled at his partner. He turned back to the computer, typing furiously. A picture appeared on the screen. "Here we go: Quetzalmon. He's a Vaccine-type Digimon."

"Is that the crest of Light on his face?" Cody asked with a frown, leaning closer to observe the picture.

Izzy blinked. "So it is. He's also an armor-level Digimon. That's odd."

"Can you check and see his possible Digivolutions, Izzy?" Hawkmon inquired.

"Is it even possible for Digimon to Digivolve further when they're at the armor level?" Ken frowned.

"They're about equivalent to Champion-level Digimon, so I don't see why not," Hawkmon reasoned.

"It's worth a shot," Izzy relented dubiously, and began typing again. A moment later, he blinked in surprise. "He can Digivolve into something called Majiramon, an Ultimate-level Digimon."

Ken narrowed his eyes as his observed Majiramon's image. The Digimon looked very much like a dragon. "See what Mega he Digivolves to."

"_Oh,_" Yolei gasped, realizing what Ken must suspect. Cody and Izzy's faces also showed dawning comprehension.

After a minute of silence, save for Izzy's typing, they all stared at the screen.

"He Digivolves to Azulongmon?" Wormmon said wonderingly.

"Does that mean that Alexander person was Azulongmon's partner, Cody?" Armadillomon asked.

"It's a possibility," the boy responded. "If Azulongmon ever had a partner. So then..." he directed his attention to the computer again, "does that mean 'Gen' refers to 'Gennai'?"

"Let's call the others and tell them, and then we'll see," Izzy said grimly, grabbing the phone.

OoOoOoO

Hiiro leaned on the windowsill, enjoying the feel of wind on his face. He stood lost in thought, watching the dark waves of the ocean rise and fall; Kolmon's mansion stood on a cliff protruding over the seashore, and so he had an excellent view.

It was late morning, almost noon, but Hiiro had only woken up an hour or so ago. None of the others were awake yet, either. They had all stayed up very late, and had slept soundly because of it. He had left his room quietly, so as not to wake Wizardmon. He felt that the Digimon had woken anyway, but had at least had the courtesy not to follow. Hiiro preferred to have time to himself to think. At the moment, he was thinking about home.

He was wondering if his mother had noticed he was gone, yet. His little brothers probably hadn't; he wasn't even sure if they knew his name. His older sister, though... No, she probably hadn't, either. Still, he missed them, and he wanted to go back.

_Why? _A small, unwelcome part of him asked. _Really, think about it... what was there that I would really want to go back?_

_Plenty of things, _Hiiro countered that thought crossly. _Like... like... _

But he was drawing a blank.

...Maybe this place really _was _better than home.

"What are you thinking about?" chirped a cheerful voice behind him. Hiiro started, and shot a surprised look over his shoulder. Yumi stood there, smiling innocently. "You look all unhappy! That's no good. What's wrong?" She tilted her head, wide-eyed and curious.

"Nothing," Hiiro said with a weary smile. "I just didn't get enough sleep last night."

"Oh. Well, me neither! Keramon was gone when I woke up, though," she said fretfully. "I'm looking for him. You haven't seen him, have you?"

"No," Hiiro replied apologetically, internally unsurprised at Keramon's desertion. Yumi had been smothering the poor thing. "I'll tell you if I do, though." Yumi beamed at him.

"You're so nice!" she gushed. "Not everyone here is. Keiko's really nice, and Itaro seems okay, but everyone else is either grumpy or scary. I want to go home," she finished plaintively, having sped through at least four different emotions in the space of a few seconds.

"I'm sure we'll find a way," was all Hiiro could think of to say. It was somewhat overwhelming being in Yumi's presence for more than a few minutes. She was just so... _bright. _It was quite off-putting. Still, that was no reason to treat her rudely as everyone but Keiko and Itaro had. Well... to be fair, Ryuki hadn't quite been _rude. _He just hadn't been polite, either. He'd sort of ignored her.

Yumi smiled at him – not one of the blinding, tooth-sparkling things she'd been demonstrating earlier or yesterday, but a genuinely grateful smile. Hiiro couldn't help but smile tentatively in return.

"I know we will," Yumi said with confidence, toying with one of her pigtails and leaning on the windowsill, the pretty smile replaced by one of her not-so-appealing grins in the blink of an eye. "Keiko and Ryuki seem smart, and of _course _Zuma must be! He's so pretty," she sighed happily. "It's great to think that we'll get to be friends with _the _Zuma Masuko, isn't it?"

"Er..." Hiiro really didn't think so; Zuma had come off as a rather rude and arrogant person, to him. But Yumi did not wait for him to respond; she began prattling on about other celebrities and their lives, obviously happy to be able to have a listener.

Hiiro settled his head on his arms, staring out the open window again. He half-listened to Yumi without interrupting her, and for the first time since arriving at Corrupted Data, he began to relax.

OoOoOoO

By the time the children and their partners set out in search of their crests, it was just after two in the afternoon. Since they did not plan to return until they had found at least one of the crests, Kolmon had packed them off with plenty of food; water they could get from any streams or lakes, although they were warned against drinking anything that came from or was in any way attached to the ocean.

As soon as they were out of sight of the mansion, a tense silence descended on the humans and Digimon. Not even Yumi spoke up; the stillness of the gray world apparently made her uneasy.

Keiko frowned to herself. The group had only just met yesterday, and very few of them were the sort who got on well with others. The Digimon, too, seemed reserved. In short, none of them had anything to talk about with each other.

This tense silence was boring her.

"So," she began in her best let's-make-friends tone, "we don't really know too much about each other, do we? If we mean to go traipsing around the Digital World or wherever it is we are, that won't do, will it? Come on, everyone say how old they are and something they like, and something they dislike! That's a good start, isn't it?"

Yumi had perked up the instant she'd begun talking, and Hiiro, Itaro, and Ryuki were all displaying varying degrees of interest. Sukiko had snorted, but seemed willing to comply, but Zuma was glaring bloody murder at her, so Keiko smiled sweetly at him. Takori, of course, appeared as if he hadn't even heard, but Keiko had expected that.

"I'll start," she told them breezily. "I'm eighteen years old, I like sports and school clubs, and I dislike bad liars. Yumi, why don't you go next?"

"Alright!" the blonde girl agreed enthusiastically. "I'm sixteen years old, I like candy and I don't like mean people! Hiiro, you go next, you go next!"

Hiiro smiled at her, obviously already tolerant of Yumi's exuberance. "I'm also sixteen years old, I like good grades, and I dislike violence," he said pleasantly. "Itaro, you want to go?"

"Ah," Itaro seemed surprised, but quickly recovered. "I'm sixteen years old, too... I like ice hockey, and I don't like horror movies. Er..."

"I'll go next, I guess," Sukiko said disdainfully. "I'm fourteen years old, I like video games, and I don't like annoying people. You go next, hotshot," she said to Zuma, jabbing him in the arm. Zuma twitched away, glowering.

"I'm thirteen years old," he grumbled reluctantly, after both Ryuki and Keiko had stared him into submission. "I like being left alone, and I dislike incompetence."

"I am fifteen," Ryuki said quietly. "I like BlackGatomon, and I dislike losing." BlackGatmon's ears twitched, and Keiko thought the creature's expression was slightly bewildered. The flash of confusion it felt seemed to quickly pass, however; its face was blank yet again within a matter of seconds.

"There we go, that's a good start, isn't it?" Keiko smiled at them. "We could talk about our families next..."

That suggestion did not go favorably. Zuma scowled and strode on ahead of the others, putting him almost out of earshot. Doubt and uncertainty flickered briefly across Yumi's face, but she quickly shook it off and stared in confusion at her feet. Hiiro looked strangely guilty, and Sukiko was obviously scornful. Itaro seemed merely embarrassed. Ryuki's expression became stony, and he seemed to almost fold in on himself. Only Takori (as usual) did not react.

_Interesting, _Keiko thought, raising an eyebrow. _Do we all have family problems? _

Her own family was filled with tension and resentment; Keiko dominated them all, and pretty much always got her own way. It had been her own desire to move to Japan when she was little, because her grandmother had just died and she had been from Japan. When Keiko had brought up that topic, she had only meant for them to each go around saying "I have a mom, a dad, and a little brother" or something like that, but it looked as if family was a sensitive topic for the others. She knew that Zuma's father had run off before he'd been born, and that his mother was with a new man every other month or so, but that was because he was a celebrity and such things were always in popular magazines. She had no idea what the others' problems might be, though.

That peaked her interest and her curiosity, and so she meant to investigate. She decided to try the unsubtle approach first, simply because it was easy and some of these kids were such saps they might actually answer her.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, affecting an uncertain tone as she broke the awkward silence. "Is that a sensitive topic for you all...? How strange, that all of you wouldn't want to talk about it... I know it's rude of me, but would you mind my asking why? I'm sure we'll all be supportive if it's something bad." She was certain of exactly the opposite, actually, but no need to tell them that.

"No reason for me, none at all!" Yumi giggled, slightly more high-pitched than normal, even for her. "My family's great. There's my mom and my dad and me and that's it. They're nice! We're normal! I'm really lucky like that."

_Liar, _Keiko thought, and resisted curling her upper lip in contempt. She hated bad liars.

"I was only thinking of how it's nice not to have to listen to my little brothers all the time, and then I wondered if I'd see them again and felt guilty," Hiiro confessed, looking away.

_Honest, noble, and an utter sap, _Keiko decided with some amusement.

"My... my dad has a drinking problem," Itaro confessed in a small, squeaky voice. "It's kind of embarassing..."

Keiko made a sympathetic noise and put an arm around his shoulders. This seemed both to embarrass and reassure the younger boy; he smiled at her, but shrugged hastily away. Hiiro pulled up next to his classmate and began talking to him softly.

"My parents are idiots," Sukiko said with such utter disdain that Keiko found herself surprised. Sukiko, however, seemed happy to talk about the stupidity of her parents, for she continued. "My dad's timid and stupid and never stops poking into my business, and my mom's a vapid and simpering fool. I'd be better off without them, really, but unfortunately I'm stuck with them until I'm eighteen." She sounded quite cross about that. "They're a real pain to live with."

Keiko made a face. "They certainly sound horrible," she agreed. She glanced at Ryuki as Yumi began questioning Sukiko about her movie star mother. His reaction had been the most interesting. "What about your parents, Ryuki?"

"My parents are dead," Ryuki said shortly, thus efficiently cutting off all conversation among both his fellow humans and the Digimon that tailed behind them.

Keiko flinched to keep from rolling her eyes. Of course the enigmatic Ryuki would have a sob-story past. It made her want to gag.

"Oh, my god, that's so awful," Yumi said, wide-eyed. "I'm sorry, Ryuki."

Ryuki smiled at her. "No, it's alright, I never knew them. I don't much care."

"You seemed to care when I asked about families before," Keiko pointed out skeptically. She didn't think he was lying, and that made her suspicious; was it possible that he was a good enough liar to fool even her?

"It wasn't my parents I thought of when you mentioned families," Ryuki told her in that annoying, enigmatic way he had. He then increased his pace, catching up with Zuma and staying there. Keiko glared after him, eyes narrowed.

Suspicious, enigmatic, sob-story past... Keiko hated him already.

OoOoOoO

A/Ns: This is something of a filler chapter; there's information a-plenty, but not much progress. I'm sorry for that. There will be action next chapter, I promise!

– Alexander's Journal. Ah, Alexander, I'm so happy I can mention him in the story so early. I originally planned for him to be a later revelation, but it just didn't work out that way, which I'm happy for as I like him.

– Armor Digimon being able to Digivolve: don't nag me about this, please. It was necessary for the story, and it wasn't actually ever _dis_proved in-canon... therefore, I'm using it. Complaints will be ignored.

– I don't know about the rest of you, but I really like hearing about characters' likes and dislikes. It often tells you something about the character themselves. ;) Oh, and because he didn't have a chance to fairly represent himself: Takori is fourteen, likes nothing, and dislikes nothing.

– The Darkly Destined are most certainly _not _from stable families. The Dark Spores may have enhanced what was already there, but these kids definitely had issues in the first place. The Dark Spores chose them in the first place because they most closely represented the dark crests _already, _just not strongly enough to actually activate the dark digivices.


	7. Crossroads

A/Ns: I'm really, really sorry about the delay:( First it was writer's block, then it was a fight scene... not to mention I've had a lot of RL things to think about.

Anyway, (and perhaps obviously,) I won't be able to keep up the chapter-every-two-weeks schedule. They'll be done when they're done. A time limit will only serve to stress me out more, I'm afraid. In any case, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Warnings and disclaimers from chapter one.

OoOoOoO

Chapter 7:

Crossroads

OoOoOoO

Gennai's expression might have been carved of stone, if Kari hadn't been aware he was a living person.

Inwardly, she cringed. She knew Yolei had found that journal in Gennai's private files, which shouldn't have been snooped through. They all felt a little guilty for that, but being curious and determined to do what they could about the Darkly Destined (and some of them were even a little hurt that Gennai had kept secrets from them), they had confronted Gennai anyway.

Davis and Tai had asked most of the questions – who was Alexander? Was he Azulongmon's partner? Did 'Gen' refer to Gennai? Who was Galfmon? Did he have anything to do with the Darkly Destined? What did the journal mean? Why hadn't Gennai shared anything about them with the DigiDestined before? And don't look so affronted, they deserved to know everything about what was going on!

Kari looked down and sighed. She didn't think it was right, pressing Gennai like this, but Davis and Tai had never been tactful, and everyone wanted answers...

Gennai had yet to answer any of the questions. He just sat there, staring dully at the printout of Alexander's journal Yolei had slapped into his hands. He had not moved since they had begun firing a barrage of questions at him.

Kari's heart went out to Gennai – she didn't know how long Gennai had been in the Digital World, but he was at least very old (as demonstrated by the form he had been in when they had first met him eight years ago), and it was a possibility that this Alexander had been a friend of his who had passed away. In any case, the journal roused painful memories in him – one could tell just by the look on his face.

"Enough," Gennai finally said in a soft, firm tone. "You do not need to continue haranguing me, you two."

Tai and Davis subsided, coughing sheepishly and turning away to hide their embarassment, only just realizing that they'd overreacted.

Gennai sighed heavily, and managed a tired half-smile for them. "I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised; I would have had to tell you some day, anyway. Very well, I will answer your questions, to the best of my ability."

"Thank you," Kari smiled at him in relief.

"Alexander..." Gennai began, a quiet sadness in his voice, "yes, he was Azulongmon's DigiDestined partner. He was the leader of the first group of humans ever pulled into the Digital World, in... 1920, I believe."

Gennai was prevented from continuing by startled exclamations from the assembled DigiDestined.

"That isn't possible," Izzy objected. "Computers weren't even properly _created _until the 1930s at the earliest! And personal computers weren't sold to the general populace until the 1970s. There's no way humans could have entered the Digital World without the link between our worlds provided by computers."

"But we entered the Digital World without using computers..." Mimi countered uncertainly. Izzy shook his head.

"That's not what I meant. Computers provide the link between the Digital and Human Worlds, so when the barriers around the Digital World were weaker – before we had reinforced them with our crests, that is – it was possible for passage between the worlds... but _only because computers existed. _So that's why I think Gennai must be mistaken about the year."

"No, it was definitely 1920," Gennai responded mildly, seemingly amused. "Alexander and the other four summoned with him were able to enter the Digital World because, quite simply, the Digital World was in dire need of protectors. That is how the Digital World defends itself in a crisis; it calls for help. Galfmon... he was the first ever serious threat to both worlds, and I suppose the Digital World instinctively reached out for help from its fellow endangered world, the Human World."

"I see." Izzy frowned, brow wrinkling in thought.

"Galfmon was a very evil Digimon; his goal was, as far as I can remember, to destroy – and thus gain the power of – the Human World, and to use that power to rewrite the Digital World to his liking. When digivices and crests were created for Alexander and his friends, Galfmon created the dark digivices and crests in response. The roles of 'DigiDestined' and 'Darkly Destined' emerged because of the power of the digivices and crests." Gennai's eyes seemed slightly misted over, as if from nostalgia.

"And... Alexander's journal? What does it mean? Is... is 'Gen' you?" Sora asked.

Gennai sighed again. "The first DigiDestined... they were Alexander, Simon, Keela, Mei... and myself, yes. Alexander's journal was something he wrote just before he left the Digital World for good, after the defeat of Galfmon, quickly outlining how the Digital World was to be protected from then on. To be honest, there are some parts of it I still haven't figured out."

The DigiDestined stared at him in a mix of surprise and unhappiness. Gennai, a DigiDestined? Well, that made (some) sense... but if his adventure had been in _1920_, why was he still alive?

"What... what happened to your friends, afterwards...?" Yolei asked, obviously trying to find a nice way to lead Gennai to telling them how it was he had survived for so long. Gennai smiled tightly in understanding.

"They went home. I didn't. My Digimon partner died in that struggle against Galfmon, and... he was never reconfigured." There was a haunted look to Gennai's eyes. "I decided to stay in the Digital World as a guardian, protecting it in a way he no longer could."

They all felt how Gennai must have been grieving; TK and Ken most of all, who had each suffered (if only briefly) when thinking their partners gone for good.

Gennai continued in a dull voice, displaying more of his feelings than the DigiDestined had ever seen. "The rest of them... Alexander, Simon, Keela, Mei... died in World War Two. After they left the Digital World, I never heard from them again."

OoOoOoO

"Do we even know where to start looking for these things?" Itaro asked the Digimon uncertainly. The group had reached a crossroads, and were unsure about which road to take. Keiko wanted to go left, Sukiko wanted to go right, and Ryuki wanted to keep on in the direction they had been going. Voting didn't help; Yumi wanted to follow Keiko, Hiiro agreed with Sukiko, and Zuma had sided with Ryuki. Itaro didn't care (or rather, didn't want anyone to be angry at him, since he would have been the deciding vote), and Takori was, of course, unable to express an opinion. The Digimon had stayed out of it, which was why Itaro now consulted them.

"They were scattered about Corrupted Data, in every direction," ViElecmon answered with a half-shrug. "It doesn't really matter which way we go."

"The left path eventually loops back around," Keiko told them somewhat crossly, resuming the argument. "We'll make better time that way, and cover more ground."

"But that goes out towards the ocean," Hiiro countered. "What if there's no safe drinking water? It's better to go right, and strike inland."

"I think we should go straight," Ryuki repeated placidly. "Hiiro has a point about the left path, but the right path is where Keiko, Takori and I came from getting here, and that's where we were attacked. The Digimon that attacked us might be hoping we'd return there, and it could be waiting there to ambush us."

That swayed Itaro's vote – the straight path was obviously the safest. He glanced uncertainly at the others, hoping someone else would switch to Ryuki's side so the majority wouldn't depend on him.

Sukiko's mouth twisted unpleasantly; she'd stick to her decision simply to be obstinate. Keiko and Hiiro were honestly considering Ryuki's suggestion now, much to Itaro's relief... although, for a brief moment, there was a queer look in Keiko's eyes that made him shiver. It was gone in a flash, though, and Itaro wondered if he had imagined it.

"Well..." Hiiro said finally, "that makes sense. Alright, then, I vote we go straight."

"I agree," Itaro said with some relief, glad Hiiro had taken the first step.

Ryuki smiled.

And so they set out down the middle road, straight on towards the dark mountains on the horizon.

They had only been on that path a short time, however, when all of a sudden the Digimon collectively tensed and whirled around, staring with a fierce intensity at what now stood on the path behind them.

Unimon and Harpymon glared resolutely back.

"That one's the Digimon that attacked us before!" Keiko declared indignantly, pointing at Unimon. The other humans tensed, looking warily at the two Digimon.

"Human children," Unimon rumbled. "Come with us! Now, before your minds are irreversibly corrupted by the darkness!"

"No way!" Yumi shot back angrily. "You think we're stupid or something? We know what you're up to!"

"Then we have no choice," Harpymon hissed, "but to bring you with us by force!" She flew at them. Unimon hesitated a beat before following suit.

"You're in the way!" BlackAgumon hissed, shoving Itaro aside. Itaro let out a yelp, landing in some bushes off to the side. He rubbed his backside, and squirmed a little further into the bushes. He had absolutely no desire whatsoever to be anywhere near this fight. He hid his face in his hands and hoped it would be over soon.

"_Pepper Breath!_" That was BlackAgumon's voice, wasn't it?

"_Aerial Attack!_"

"_Wind Seeker!_"

And those had been the bad Digimon. Something hit the ground near Itaro, making a grunting sound on impact. Itaro peeked through his fingers. BlackAgumon was sprawled in front of him, knocked down by the force of the two attacks. The black dinosaur Digimon struggled to his feet, glaring at his opponents and ignoring Itaro.

A cry of pain drew Itaro's unwilling eyes to the battle taking place. DemiDevimon had just been sent flying by a hard kick from Unimon, and Harpymon was assaulting ViElecmon and Gazimon with her claws. Strabimon and Keramon tackled Unimon simultaneously, but were both thrown off the horse-like Digimon when he began to buck. Unimon then proceeded to blast them both of them with a blue-and-white ball of light from his mouth. Strabimon and Keramon stayed down.

BlackGatomon and Wizardmon, who had been getting the other humans under cover of some trees, now turned and joined the fray. BlackGatomon leapt at Harpymon from behind, causing her to stumble right into ViElecmon and Gazimon's thunder-based attacks. She let out a pained and angry screech, and took to the air.

Wizardmon had shouted "_Thunderball!_" and hit Unimon with a glowing ball of yellow energy from his staff. He and BlackAgumon were trading blows with Unimon and driving the larger Digimon backwards – until Harpymon came at them from behind and attacked with her "_Wind Seeker_" ability. BlackAgumon went down, and Wizardmon was forced back into Unimon's waiting hoofs. He was kicked into a tree, and slumped to the ground. Unimon hit him with an "_Aerial Attack_" dead on before he could struggle to his feet. Wizardmon didn't get up again.

Now it was Harpymon and Unimon against BlackGatomon, ViElecmon, and Gazimon. All the others except for DemiDevimon were unconscious, and Itaro couldn't see where Zuma's partner had gone.

Itaro crawled quietly over to where BlackAgumon was slumped as the fight continued on behind him. He reached hesitantly for his partner's shoulder, but didn't quite touch him. Itaro bit his lower lip uncertainly. BlackAgumon was _scary._ Itaro didn't like him. Still, the little Digimon was his partner, and he had just been fighting to protect them, right? Plus getting Itaro out of the way, not fighting the enemies, had been his first priority. Sure, he'd violently shoved Itaro into the bushes, but that counted, didn't it?

Itaro crouched there and trembled, caught between uncertainty and concern.

Finally, cringing and ready to pull away if his partner ended up biting him, Itaro carefully lay a hand on BlackAgumon's upper arm.

"Hey..." he whispered, never seeing Harpymon dodge ViElecmon's _Assassin Bolt_, leaving him right in its path.

BlackAgumon's eyes snapped open.

"Idiot, _move!_" BlackAgumon snarled, trying to shove Itaro out of the way.

Too slow – and not far enough.

A red light emanated from Itaro's waist band.

"_BlackAgumon Digivolve to... BlackGraymon!_"

Itaro flinched, and waited for the attack to hit.

And waited.

And waited.

He peered up, and then began to gape. Standing over him was a humongous blue dinosaur with black stripes, and a black horned half-skull on its head. Its yellow eyes glimmered malevolently.

"Do I have to repeat myself?" BlackGraymon snarled at Itaro. "_Move._"

Itaro moved. In fact, he pretty much fled in terror. Time to hide behind Hiiro and hope for the best.

OoOoOoO

Machinedramon hated humans. In fact, of the Dark Masters, he was the one who detested them the most. He had nothing but contempt and resentment for the pathetic Digimon who acted as pets for the human parasites. That hatred had only deepened after his defeat and subsequent banishment to Corrupted Data.

When he'd learned exactly what Kolmon's loophole entailed, he had been all for abandoning the plan and resigning himself to being an eternal prisoner in the gray world. Better that then have to interact and cooperate with _humans. _

But he'd been outvoted, and out of loyalty to and respect for Piedmon, he had stayed. As long as it wasn't him that ended up with one of the human brats, he'd be able to tolerate the situation.

Unfortunately, he _had _ended up as one of the Darkly Destined partner Digimon. Worse, his human was the most weak, pathetic, snivelling little wimp. Machinedramon – infuriatingly reduced to BlackAgumon – hated him on sight. _Itaro. _Pffeh!

However, it was much too late to back out; his best option was to, however unhappily, follow through with the plan to get out of Corrupted Data. It was, at least, simple enough to impose his will on his cowardly little partner.

However much BlackAgumon hated humans and loathed his partner, they were necessary evils to endure. More to the point, the Darkly Destined were essential if he hoped to gain his freedom again, and Itaro was the one who had been put into his care.

And damned if he was going to let two weakling lackeys of that fool Azulongmon ruin his chance at freedom!

Snarling, ready for battle, BlackGraymon advanced on his startled foes.

OoOoOoO

ANs: ...I hate fight scenes. So, so much. Part of the reason I chose the premises of Darkly Destined was to get some experience at them. That being the case, my early fight scenes will not be very good, I'm afraid, and I can't promise they'll get better. But I'll try, and I hope you enjoy the story anyway. :)

Say, does anyone happen to know what crests Zhuqiaomon, Baihumon, and Ebonwumon are associated with? I know Azulongmon is Hope and Light, but I haven't a clue as to the others, except that one of Zhuqiaomon's is probably Courage. :( I'm going to have to go with what's most convenient for me if I don't know for sure, so if any of you happen to know their crests (or at least know whether or not it's ever been stated anywhere what their crests even _are_), it'd be great if you could tell me. :)


	8. Betrayal

A/Ns: Done at last! And it didn't take three months this time. ;)

Warnings and disclaimers from chapter one.

OoOoOoO

Chapter 8:

Betrayal

OoOoOoO

"Well, Joe?" Gomamon asked, peering up at his partner and tilting his head to the side. Joe typed a few keystrokes, then leaned back in his chair, scanning the computer screen.

"We've got six cases of kids just disappearing from home with no sign of kidnap," Joe told Mimi and the two Digimon flatly. They had volunteered to return from the DigiWorld early and see if they could find out who had mysteriously vanished – and thus who the Darkly Destined were.

Mimi's brow wrinkled. "Only six? Shouldn't there be eight?"

"Yeah, but it's possible that no one's noticed the other disappearances, or no one's reported them," Joe pointed out.

"Well?" Palmon echoed Gomamon, looking expectantly at Joe. "Who are they?"

Joe frowned as he read the reports. "Zuma Masuko, thirteen-year-old model, disappeared from his residence in Shinjuku at around three in the afternoon yesterday. Keiko Hanasu never returned home from her high school in Odaiba – it's the same one Sora, Tai, Izzy, and Matt just graduated from – and is assumed to have disappeared at about three-thirty. Itaro Kouki and Hiiro Doumei, sixteen-year-old students, disappeared from their school some time between four and five in the afternoon. Fourteen-year-old Sukiko Hideki – that's Mr Hideki's daughter – vanished from her apartment complex in Odaiba at roughly six in the evening. Finally, fourteen-year-old Takori Kaboshi mysteriously vanished from his home in Shinjuku somewhere between two and seven p.m."

"We already knew about Sukiko," Mimi mused, "and Zuma's disappearance was all over the newspapers this morning. I've never heard of the other kids, but since most of them go to the same schools as some of the others, we can always ask them, right?"

"Yeah," Joe confirmed, pulling up his e-mail inbox on the computer. "I'll e-mail Davis, Ken, Cody, Yolei, TK, and Kari on their D-Terminals about that now."

OoOoOoO

_Hey guys, _

_We've found the reports on the missing kids. Davis, TK, Kari, do you know Hiiro Doumei or Itaro Kouki? And ask Tai, Izzy, Matt, or Sora about Keiko Hanasu._

–_Joe _

OoOoOoO

_Joe, _

_Itaro Kouki and Hiiro Doumei are both in our class. They disappeared, huh? That's odd, because neither of them struck me as being very evil. Itaro's actually a pretty nice guy, and Hiiro's quiet but very polite. I can't imagine either of them as Darkly Destined... _

_Also, Tai and the others said that Keiko Hanasu's a friend of some of the girls that were on Sora's tennis team; they've never talked to her much, but she seemed like an amicable person. She had a lot of friends, anyway, and they all liked her. That doesn't really sound like Darkly Destined material either, does it? _

_Are they the only ones who disappeared? I know a lot of people vanishing in the same time period isn't very likely, but... they just seem like unlikely suspects. _

–_TK _

OoOoOoO

_Everyone, _

_The ones who disappeared were the three of them, Zuma Masuko and Sukiko Hideki (both of whom we already knew about), and a boy from Shinjuku named Takori Kaboshi. Those were the only mysterious disappearances reported. We know that's two short, but we figured either the other two weren't noticed, or weren't reported. That's all we've got now, but we'll check into these six as much as we can. _

_Ken, Yolei – could either one of you two, or Izzy, come over to help us out? Your hacking skills would be appreciated. _

–_Joe_

OoOoOoO

_Joe, _

_We'll be right over. _

–_Ken _

OoOoOoO

Ryuki's eyes had widened slightly when BlackAgumon Digivolved, but after that point, the battle hadn't been concerning anymore – BlackGraymon dominated the field.

Caught off-guard by the Digivolution, Harpymon had been unable to get out of the way of his claws fast enough; he grabbed her, and hurled her into Unimon. The horse-like Digimon, also momentarily stunned, had not reacted fast enough to dodge.

Before they even had the chance to recover, BlackGraymon, ViElecmon, and Gazimon went on the offensive.

"_Mega Flame!_"

"_Assassin Bolt!_"

"_Electric Stun Blast!_"

The howls of the two Champion Digimon was enough to momentarily deafen Ryuki. Both Unimon and Harpymon dissolved, as Ryuki had seen defeated Digimon do on the TV show.

They had won.

BlackGraymon de-Digivolved, and the others moved out of the bushes to congratulate them and check on the unconscious Digimon. Zuma had already left to find DemiDevimon, grumbling about useless pests.

Ryuki, however, stayed put. BlackGatomon returned to his now-familiar perch on Ryuki's shoulder.

"They were almost certainly sent by Azulongmon," the cat Digimon told him quietly. "The other Sovereign haven't completely freed themselves from the bridge between the worlds, and it's only the four of them that could know that you've been summoned already."

Ryuki nodded to show that he had heard. This was what BlackGatomon had expected, and told him he expected, so Ryuki was unsurprised.

"He'll keep sending his servants after us until he either captures us, or we get out of here, won't he?" Ryuki asked his partner. BlackGatomon affirmed this. Ryuki then felt as if he were being watched, and glanced around.

He met Keiko's eyes, and raised an eyebrow. She smiled amiably at him, then turned away.

Ryuki had found himself forming fairly standard opinions of his other 'teammates' (with the exception of Takori, though Ryuki certainly didn't feel negatively about him), but his feelings towards Keiko were... conflicted. On the one hand, he was drawn by her nearly tangible charisma, but on the other, he was completely repelled by something about her. He didn't even know what it was; she certainly hadn't demonstrated any trait that was even remotely offensive, and she was intelligent and good at taking charge of the others. Even now, she was soothing the distressed Itaro and Yumi while talking seriously about something with Hiiro. Even sour-tempered Sukiko stood near Keiko; not quite part of the group, but not discluded, either.

Ryuki glanced over at Takori. Unresponsive and listless, as he had constantly been since Ryuki first met him, and yet... Ryuki felt an almost fraternal protectiveness for the younger boy.

'He must have been very charismatic, too,' Ryuki thought absently, 'before... whatever it was that made him like that.'

That trail of thought gave Ryuki pause, and he idly let his eyes wander to Keiko, around the rest of the group, and then back to Takori. An unbidden sense of foreboding brought bile to the back of his throat.

Although no trace of emotion reached his facial expression, Ryuki found himself desperately hoping that there wasn't a correlation between their status as Darkly Destined, as BlackGatomon had called them, and Takori's current state.

'That can't be the future that awaits us,' he told himself stubbornly. 'It just can't be.'

OoOoOoO

DemiDevimon cowered in the bushes where he had fallen, torn between wanting to return and wanting to just fly away and not look back.

'This whole thing is a big mistake,' the bat-like Digimon thought crossly. 'Why did I have to be chosen for this gig, anyway? I wanted to live comfortably at Kohlmon's mansion, and wait for the _others _to open up the way to the human world without me having to do anything! This isn't how it's supposed to be at all!'

DemiDevimon had learned his lesson from that whole fiasco with the DigiDestined eight years ago – if he got directly involved with anything dangerous, it was bound to come back to bite him in the ass, figuratively _and _literally. He still resented Myotismon for that, but he wasn't suicidal, so of course he had acted as simpering and loyal as he always had.

This whole 'adventure' was going to be a pain, he could see it already; his human partner was stuck-up and contemptuous, and not at all what DemiDevimon had thought he'd be like. At least he hadn't gotten stuck with Yumi; that was the only bright side _he _could see.

If this wasn't the only way to get out of this hellhole, DemiDevimon would _definitely _have ditched the group by now. As it was, though...

Reluctantly, DemiDevimon started to turn in the direction he had come from, when he heard a rustling in the bushes. He tensed, and tried to be as still as possible; if there was a hostile Digimon around here, DemiDevimon certainly didn't want to bump into it while he was alone.

Nervous and frightened, DemiDevimon was heartily surprised when it was Zuma who stepped into view.

"There you are," the boy said coldly, looking down his nose at DemiDevimon. "What were you doing, hiding until the fight was over?"

"No," DemiDevimon protested indignantly, even though that was exactly what he had been doing. "I was knocked out! I only just woke up!"

Zuma snorted and rolled his eyes, then turned back in the direction he had come from. "Whatever. Let's go."

"Yeah, yeah," DemiDevimon grumbled, hopping into the air and flapping after his partner.

_Why _did he have to get stuck with the obnoxiously superior kid? It wasn't fair! No matter what situation DemiDevimon ended up in, he always found himself with the short end of the straw. He could have been paired with the easily manipulated Itaro, or the satisfyingly evil Sukiko, or – better yet – Takori the zombie. But _noooo, _he had to get the haughty, sneering, lofty, obnoxious, disrespectful _Zuma! _DemiDevimon couldn't stand him already, and he hadn't even known the damn kid for a day yet!

And, dammit – why, _why_ was he feeling so gratified that the stupid kid had come to look for him?

OoOoOoO

They were making good progress, Hiiro realized. It was evening, and they were already near the foot of the mountains. Although, that was hardly surprising; after the battle this afternoon, Ryuki and Keiko (who had become the group's co-leaders when everyone was too tired to question taking orders from them) had pushed the group to move quickly. Still, walking so far so quickly on top of the fight, everyone was exhausted, especially the Digimon.

He glanced over at his partner. Wizardmon's eyes were dull and weary, and there was a slump to his shoulders. He was hardly the worst off, though; Gazimon and Strabimon were in the same state, and only BlackGatomon seemed unaffected – though that was probably because he had ridden on Ryuki's instead of walking. ViElecmon had seemed fine until about an hour ago, when he started lagging behind. Sukiko had fallen back with him, and the two of them brought up the group's rear. DemiDevimon had had a similar decrease in energy, and (much to everyone's surprise) Zuma had allowed his partner to perch on his shoulder so he wouldn't have to keep flying. Keramon was visibly drooping, and BlackAgumon looked asleep on his feet.

"Hey," Hiiro said quietly, moving closer to Ryuki and Keiko. "Everyone's worn out. Why don't we stop somewhere for the night?"

Both of them looked back at the rest of the group, surprised. Apparently neither had noticed the general weariness – Hiiro frowned. It had been so quiet for the past forty-five minutes at least; were they so much more comfortable with silence than with friendly chatter?

"Might be a good idea," Keiko replied with a dry smile. She joined Ryuki in scanning the terrain ahead of them. Ryuki murmured something softly to BlackGatomon, and the cat Digimon wordlessly hopped off his shoulder and disappeared into the brush.

"We'll find a place to stop for the night soon, if you don't mind, guys," Keiko called back to the others. "It's been a long day and we're all tired."

Zuma gave her a scathing look that clearly said, 'what, are you just noticing this?' and Sukiko rolled her eyes. Itaro and Yumi, though, visibly sagged with relief, and all the Digimon definitely perked up a little bit.

BlackGatomon returned, easily jumping up to Ryuki's shoulder, and said something Hiiro didn't quite catch.

"There's a thicket off the side of the path that should be safe enough," Ryuki told the group. "It's just over there; let's go."

Within minutes, the group was sprawled in the clearing. Kohlmon had given each human had been given a backpack to carry with some conveniences before they left, so everyone had a blanket to share with their respective partners. They ate their fill of the food he'd provided them with – no one felt any need to conserve when it would be so easy just to walk back and get more when they ran low.

Just as everyone was preparing to sleep, Hiiro caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. In a depression in one of the tree's trunks sat something small that glittered darkly; somehow, it drew his eyes, even though something that dark shouldn't have been so visible in this dark world.

He couldn't resist the allure of the thing, whatever it was; numb, he stood, and walked over to the tree, ignoring surprised questions from his partner and companions. When he picked it up, black light radiated from the object, filling the thicket. After it died down, Hiiro was able to survey the object more closely.

It was some sort of small black pendant on a necklace, with strange markings around the edges; what caught Hiiro's attention, though, was the symbol inserted in the center of the pendant. Hiiro stared at it, transfixed, not even noticing when Yumi came over to peer curiously over his shoulder.

"Hey, it looks like the crest of Reliability from the TV show!" she piped up. "Except all... black, and stuff."

Reliability? Hiiro frowned. No, that wasn't right. Somehow, he knew what this crest stood for: it was the crest of... of...

Hiiro felt himself go cold.

It was the crest of Betrayal.

OoOoOoO

A/Ns: Feel free to speculate on why Yumi and Ryuki's disappearances weren't reported. I ain't telling. :D

Somehow, I feel like I'm copping out on a good amount of content for this chapter... but I've been busy, and this is the best I could do. Sorry if it's not up to the quality of previous chapters. :(


	9. Nightmare Dreamers

A/Ns: Sorry this is so late! Thanks for being so patient, everyone.

Warnings and disclaimers from chapter one.

OoOoOoO

Chapter 9:

Nightmare Dreamers

OoOoOoO

Matt frowned up at the derelict building, then looked back at the piece of paper in his hand to make sure he had the right place. Yes, there was no doubt about it – this was where he wanted to be. In theory, anyway.

Heaving a sigh and hoping the place was structurally safer than it looked as he lamented Gabumon's inability to be with him in public, he cautiously approached the seemingly-abandoned warehouse.

Ken, Yolei, Izzy, and Cody working together had made short work of hacking everything there was to know about the teenagers reported missing. By lunch time, they were done. Most of the information had been pretty standard – grades, addresses, family; all fairly normal, though in some cases grades had begun rising or falling sharply with no warning one year ago. And every one of the six kids reported had spent a brief stint in the hospital one year ago, as well, all because of unexpected reactions to a bee sting. In all likelihood, the geniuses of the DigiDestined had concluded, those six were definitely members of the Darkly Destined.

Then, this report had come in – a seventh teenager noted as missing. Unfortunately, that was all the information they'd gotten; that, and the address the boy had lived at.

The source of the information had been a contact of Matt's – all of them had discreetly let it be known that they were curious about any mysterious disappearances happening yesterday – and so he had volunteered to go check it out.

An abandoned, overgrown warehouse on the outskirts of Odaiba was not what he had expected. Not exactly the kind of place one wanted to be just after sunset.

Knocking on the door brought no response; Matt opened the door slightly, peering into the room. "Hello?" he called.

Still no answer. Matt slowly entered, frowning at the disrepair of the place. It was, however, surprisingly clean, and there were definitely signs of habitation. Someone had paid for electricity, for one thing – the lights were on – and there were various pieces of furniture, including a couch, two futons with pillows and sheets, a refrigerator, a television set, and a wardrobe. There was also a large bookcase, with a very extensive number of hardcover books shoved into it, with paperbacks scattered randomly about the room.

Curled on the couch was a man. He had messy, short black hair, that fell into his face and stuck up in all directions. Unfocused green eyes stared blankly, half-obscured by the man's bangs. His clothes were rumpled and had probably been worn for at least two days, but were otherwise not in bad condition. Matt guessed the man's age to be about the same as his own – nineteen, or at the very most twenty. Certainly no younger than eighteen.

When Matt warily approached him, the man turned his face towards the intruder and finally seemed to focus.

There was silence for a few minutes, and then the man asked plaintively, "Where's Ryuki?"

OoOoOoO

The man's name was Shoura Inajima. He was, in fact, twenty-four, but he was wide-eyed and childish and slightly malnourished, which was why Matt had mistaken his age at first glance. He was not mentally retarded, but he did seem to be a very confused individual, lost in his own thoughts and incapable of caring for himself.

All this the DigiDestined discovered at Rinsuke's luxurious apartment, which had become their group meeting place, since Rinsuke's wife was frequently not at home and Rinsuke wanted to keep up with what they found out about the Darkly Destined.

Cody rubbed his temples tiredly. The fourteen-year-old had put himself in charge of interrogation, since, his father having been a police officer and his own nature being very inquisitive, he best knew what questions to ask and how to ask them.

He had started with simple, easy questions about Shoura himself – name, age, and family situation, basically. Shoura had given disjointed, tentative answers to the first two, but when it had come to the third, he had merely asked where someone named Ryuki was.

"And who," Cody asked patiently, "is Ryuki?"

Shoura blinked at him, eyes unfocusing and refocusing before he answered. "My... my brother," he mumbled at last. "My little brother. Ryuki. Where's Ryuki? He's not supposed to be gone," Shoura told them, sounding more like a lost child than a grown man.

"How about you tell us all you can about Ryuki?" Cody suggested gently, shooting a glance at Izzy to see the red-haired genius already typing keys rapidly on his laptop computer, no doubt looking for anything he could find on Ryuki Inajima. "Then we'll be able to find him." _Probably in the Dark Ocean. _

Cody hoped Izzy would be able to find something on the computer, because Shoura just blinked dazedly at him, eyes unfocusing again. Sighing, he turned to Izzy and raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Found something," Izzy said, as Cody had hoped he would. "Ryuki Inajima – along with Shoura here – was a resident of a local orphanage until about six years ago, when Shoura became a legal adult and applied for guardianship of his little brother, which he received. There aren't any other records of either of them. Ryuki should be about fourteen now, but I'm not finding any school records for him."

"Ryuki doesn't go to school," Shoura piped up. "He reads the books."

"Books?" Cody repeated.

"There was a full bookcase at the warehouse," Matt interjected. "There were books all over the place, too."

"Ryuki's books," Shoura said happily.

"Find anything else, Izzy?" Tai asked. Izzy shook his head.

"No. Not even medical records. It's like they just disappeared after they left the orphanage."

"Why did Shoura receive guardianship of Ryuki?" Yolei wondered, obviously thinking out loud. "He doesn't really seem like he'd be great guardian material." She glanced at Shoura, who was curled up on the couch, hugging a pillow close to his body as if it were a buffer between him and the rest of the world. His eyes had unfocused again, too.

"He might have been better six years ago than he is now," Ken pointed out, circling Shoura and inspecting him. Ken's eyes were narrowed in concentration; Cody could tell he had some inspiration, or at least a theory, about why Shoura was so odd. "Things happen to make people change." Gently, Ken brushed the back of Shoura's neck with one forefinger.

Shoura yelped, jerking away and darting to the corner of the room, crouching with his back to the wall, clutching the pillow tightly in his fingers. His eyes rested warily, almost reproachfully, on Ken.

Cody inhaled sharply, realizing what Ken had been trying to test – and had apparently proved, judging by the grim twist to his mouth. "There's a Dark Spore inside him?"

"Yeah," Ken replied softly. "I could... sense it, almost."

"Wait," Davis protested. "If he has a Dark Spore, does that mean he's a Darkly Destined too?"

"Not necessarily," Yolei asserted. "He might not even be DigiDestined, like Ken is. We don't know enough about where the Dark Spores come from to draw a correlation between them and the Darkly Destined or the DigiDestined, and there's no way to tell how long he's had it. If it's longer or shorter than one year, he doesn't fit in to the pattern of when the other Darkly Destined assumably were infested by their Dark Spores."

"Shoura," T.K. addressed the man softly, "did Ryuki get really sick for a few days, about one year ago?"

Shoura's eyes darted to T.K., and for once, they lacked that fogginess. "Yes," he whispered.

"And you?" T.K. prompted.

Shoura's mouth twisted, and his fingers dug into the pillow even further. He seemed to be struggling with himself for a moment, and finally he said hoarsely, "No, not then. Longer. Four years ago." He shuddered, then folded in on himself, burying his face in the pillow.

No matter how they tried, the DigiDestined could not get him to respond to anything for the rest of the night.

OoOoOoO

"_But what if it's not enough, Alexander?"_

_Hesitancy. Reluctance. "Well... if you have to, you could ask the Digitally Destined who come after us to release their Destiny Crests to form a protective shield around the Digital World, but _only_ if you absolutely have to, Gen." _

"_Why? That sounds like it would be really helpful."_

"_Because if the Crests are released, Galfmon's Dark Crests will be able to..."_

"_To what? ...Alexander? What's wrong?" _

_Blue eyes. Amazingly blue eyes, clear and wise, and very, very tired._

"_Who are you?" _

Ryuki jerked awake, chest heaving as he gasped for breath, sweat pouring down his body. A soft whimper caught his attention; his head snapped in that direction.

Itaro. Only Itaro. In the midst of a nightmare, too, by the look of it. But no, his brow unwrinkled and his breathing calmed. Itaro turned over in his sleep, sighing.

"You, too, huh?" someone murmured. Ryuki shot a sharp look in the direction of the voice.

Keiko sat in front of the fire, knees folded up to her chest, and there was a haunted look in her eyes. She was the only one awake; everyone else slumbered on, though there was a lot of restless shifting for a few minutes from the humans. Even Takori stirred slightly before returning to deep sleep. Apparently, Ryuki wasn't the only one who'd had uneasy dreams.

The Digimon, on the other hand, slept like the dead.

"Me, too, what?" Ryuki asked, sitting up and brushing damp bangs out of his eyes. Keiko sighed.

"You had a nightmare too?" she clarified.

"Yeah," Ryuki affirmed, staring into the fire. Going back to sleep didn't seem like much of an option; adrenaline was pumping through him, and his whole body trembled. Keiko didn't look much better off. Better to stay awake and keep guard.

The silence stretched on. Then, Keiko asked, "By any chance, did yours involve four people about my age and one more a lot younger? Three boys and two girls? The four older ones foreigners? The names I heard were Gen – the litte kid – and Mei, one of the girls."

Ryuki didn't answer for a long time. "I saw them," he said at last. "I heard Gen's name, and one of the other guys – Alexander. And something about the crests and a Digimon called Galfmon."

"It's weird," Keiko chuckled humorlessly, "I heard them talking about something completely different – they were saying good-bye to each other – and the only things our dreams have in common are the genders and general ages of five people, and the name of one of them... but I just can't make myself doubt that we were dreaming about the same people. The same day, even."

"Yeah," Ryuki whispered. He had the same unquestionable certainty that it had been the same people on the same day; that the only difference was which part of the conversation they were eavesdropping on. It didn't even strike him as a possibility that the nightmare had been nothing more than a bad dream. He hesitated a minute longer, then asked, "Did any of them see you?"

Keiko stiffened. "No. Did they see you?"

"Alexander looked right at me." Ryuki licked his lips; suddenly they felt dry. "We made eye contact. He asked me who I was. I don't think the others could see me, but I never found out for sure because that's when I woke up."

Keiko gave him a slant-eyed look, contemplating that. "Who do you think they were?" she asked at length.

Ryuki stared into the fire, not letting his thoughts reach his face. "Our enemies," he said at last, and resolved to find out exactly what it was the Dark Crests would be able to do.

OoOoOoO

Yumi woke the next morning with a bad case of the shivers.

In fact, everyone was looking a little out of it. Itaro was more jumpy than ever, and kept rubbing his upper arms, as if he were really cold. Yumi felt that way a bit, too, but at least _she _didn't flinch whenever someone talked to her. Poor Itaro.

Zuma – oh, poor beautiful Zuma! – seemed distracted and snappy, saying mean things Yumi _knew _he didn't mean whenever she or Keiko or DemiDevimon tried to ask him what was the matter. Sukiko had bags under her eyes and was super-grouchy, even to ViElecmon. Hiiro was quiet, and when Yumi tried to talk to him, he didn't hear her. Keiko and Ryuki just seemed very tired, and they didn't seem surprised at all at the condition all the humans were in. Even Takori was acting weird – well, weirder than normal; when Strabimon tried to lead him forward once everyone was ready to continue on, Takori didn't move. He just stood there, staring. It took Ryuki giving him a gentle push to get him walking, and the blank-eyed boy's steps seemed to shuffle and drag more than usual.

The Digimon, for their part, looked really frustrated. Yumi felt too shivery to do more for Keramon than pat him on the head, and when she didn't scoop him up for periodic hugs as she had the day before, he became edgy and fell back with the other Digimon, whispering fiercely. The only Digimon that didn't join in the buzz of conversation at the back of the group was BlackGatomon, who, instead of riding on Ryuki's shoulder, walked on all-fours at his heels, glancing up at his human partner from time to time.

Yumi wondered if the others had had weird dreams last night, too. Weird nightmares, more like. Even though it hadn't been particularly scary, or much of anything at all – just some conversation between people she didn't know – it still had her shaking and shuddering like she did the day after she had nightmares.

The nightmare just wouldn't leave her alone, either, tugging at her thoughts like something important she'd forgotten to do.

"_We'll never see each other again, Gen," _a Chinese-looking girl had whispered, hugging a little boy close, _"I'll really, really miss you." _

"_Me too, Mei," _the little boy had cried into her shoulder as two other boys and another girl looked on. _"Don't forget me."_

"_Never. Not you, not Yasyamon, not anything that's happened. As long as we still think about each other, still remember," _the girl called Mei had continued, ruffling Gen's hair as she gave him a wet smile, _"we'll still be together, in our thoughts and in our hearts."_

OoOoOoO

"What do you think's _wrong _with them?" Keramon hissed to his fellow Digimon, glaring at the Darkly Destined's backs.

"I don't know, I don't know," Gazimon growled in frustration. "Could this be a side effect of the Dark Spores, ViElecmon?"

ViElecmon frowned contemplatively, ears twisted backwards. "It could be – the Dark Spores amplify their host's worst traits, eating away at everything else, while giving the child some superhuman ability. I've no clue what that feels like to the host, but that DigiDestined brat never knew he was infested until the fact of the matter was thrust in his face. Perhaps it has something to do with their being Darkly Destined. A side effect, of being psychologically imbalanced enough to match a dark crest.

"Wait," Wizardmon interjected, shooting ViElecmon a sharp look. "'Superhuman ability'? How so?"

ViElecmon sneered at him, obviously not intending to answer, when DemiDevimon piped up, "I didn't know about that either."

"None of us did," BlackAgumon growled, giving ViElecmon a dark look.

ViElecmon snarled at him, and BlackAgumon hissed back. Finally, ViElecmon answered, though not without an ugly glare for BlackAgumon and Wizardmon. "Enhanced intelligence and physical ability is the most frequent one, and the only double-ability," he grumbled. "It's recurred in several of the humans infested by Dark Spores – Ken, Hiiro, Ryuki, Keiko, Zuma," ViElecmon listed. "If you know how to judge these things about human bodies, you can tell that they're stronger than they look and have a high amount of stamina. You can see the intelligence in their eyes. It comes out stronger in some more than others – Ken, Ryuki, and Keiko more than Hiiro and Zuma."

"Alright," Strabimon said patiently, glancing up at Takori with concern in his eyes. "What about the other, um, superhuman abilities?"

"Enhanced awareness of one's surroundings – that'll be Itaro, I think," ViElecmon said brusquely. "Better memory, sometimes to the point of being almost photographic... probably Sukiko, since she's not displaying any of the other ones. An enhanced sense of balance – Yumi definitely has that, look at how high the heels are on her shoes, and she hasn't tripped or misstepped once on this uneven terrain."

"What about Takori?" Strabimon asked insistently, with another nervous look at his partner.

ViElecmon barked a laugh, cold and cruel and harsh. "Why, isn't it obvious?" Sukiko's partner sneered. "Takori is extremely _lucky._"

OoOoOoO

A/Ns: More action for next chapter, I promise! Hey, at least you got some interesting exposition, right?


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